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The Australian Open begins on Sunday, the first major tournament on the calendar and the unofficial start of the 2025 tennis season. Let the bright sun and electric blue courts of Melbourne transport you to the other side of the world, where it’s summer instead of a sad winter.
Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner will look to defend their 2024 titles, but each will have stiff competition to claim the 2025 women’s and men’s singles trophies.
The best male stories
Novak Djokovic He may be seventh favourite, but his previous success in Melbourne cannot be ignored. Now 37, he had a bad year in 2024, failing to win Grand Slams for the first time since 2017. All things considered, a “bad year” for Djokovic would top other players: In 2024 he won the Olympic gold medal. He had been pursuing his entire career. Armed with new coach Andy Murray (yes, that Andy Murray), Djokovic is now looking to win the 11th Australian Open trophy of his career and his record 25th Grand Slam.
Sinner Jannik is the defending Australian Open champion in men’s singles. His 2024 trophy was his first Grand Slam victory and kicked off an electric year in which he became world No. 1, won his first US Open, led Italy to victory in the Davis Cup and won the Finals. ATP. In 2024 he also tested positive for a banned substance that he claims entered his system through a spray used by his masseuse. He avoided a suspension after an independent tribunal of the International Tennis Integrity Agency ruled in August that he was not at fault. The Australian Open will be our first chance to see Sinner in 2025 as he has yet to play this year.
World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz He will look to regain some glory after his 2024 season roughly ended. She won her first French Open and her second Wimbledon last year, but her game suffered a sharp decline after that. He lost in the first round of the Cincinnati Open and in the second round of the US Open, which he won in 2022, and failed to advance from the group stage of the ATP Finals. He, like Sinner, has yet to play in 2025, but prepare to come out on top (both literally and metaphorically): the Australian Open is the only Grand Slam he needs to win to complete his career Slam.
American taylor fritz made huge strides in 2024. He is now ranked No. 4 in the world and looked fantastic at the United Cup, where he overcame Hubert Hurkacz to help the United States to victory. The time has passed for us to wonder if his escape is real. He has shown us that it is. If Fritz is at the top of his game and everything goes well, he has a real chance of being the first American to win the Australian Open since Andre Agassi in 2003.
The best women’s stories
Is Aryna Sabalenka world, and we all live in it. After winning the 2023 Australian Open and reaching the final of the US Open, she began 2024 by winning the Australian Open again and eventually took home the US Open trophy in September. And when former world number one Iga Swiatek had unusual difficulty maintaining her high level of play last year, Sabalenka swooped in and started racking up wins. She is now world number one and, with her previous dominance in Melbourne, looks unlikely to give it up anytime soon.
Coco Gauffwho had a disappointing 2024 season, ended the year with a coaching change that has already borne fruit. Not only did she win the WTA Finals, where she beat Sabalenka in the semifinals to end the year, but she began 2025 with a victory over Iga Swiatek to lead Team USA to victory in the United Cup. She seems revived and, as if to prove it, she was named MVP of the United Cup. Gauff has already won a major and is considered one of the brightest stars in women’s tennis, but if she continues to play like she did in the United Cup, this could be the year in which she adds more important trophies to her case and goes all out. the light. .
Iga SwiatekThe world number 2, will be in Melbourne with a new coach and will try to reach the final rounds again. She reached the semifinals in 2022, but was eliminated in the third round in 2023 and 2024. She is looking to return to solid ground on hard courts, but like Sinner, remains under the shadow of her positive PED test from last year.
Gauff is the highest-ranked American woman, but she’s not the only one in the top 10. Jessica Pegula It is the number 7 position, Emma Navarro is the No. 8 seed and Danielle Collins It is number 10.
The top 10 men’s finishers
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Sinner Jannik
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Alexander Zverev
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Carlos Alcaraz
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taylor fritz
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Daniil Medvedev
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Casper Ruud
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Novak Djokovic
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Alex de Minaur
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Andrei Rublev
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Grigor Dimitrov
Top 10 female seeds
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Aryna Sabalenka
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Iga Swiatek
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Coco Gauff
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jasmine paolini
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Qin Wen Zheng
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Elena Rybakina
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Jessica Pegula
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Emma Navarro
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Daria Kasatkina
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Danielle Collins