The draw for the Australian Open 2025 will be held in Melbourne on Thursday, January 9. The 32 seeds have been defined for the first Grand Slam of the season, which will start on Sunday, January 12 with the men’s final to be played at 9:30 Italian time on Sunday, January 26.
While the wait for the draw is mainly focused on the draw placement of Carlos Alcaraz, who is the number 3 seed and has a 50% chance of finishing in the top half with Jannik Sinner and a 50% chance of finishing in the bottom half with world number 2 Alexander Zverev, there are some names outside the list of seeds that the main favorites of the tournament would gladly avoid in their debut or second round. Let’s look at five of them.
Alexander Bublik, a talented player from Kazakhstan ranked number 33, is currently, barring any last-minute withdrawals, the first player not among the top seeds. And he is certainly not an opponent that the main favorites would like to meet on their debut.
Another name that could end up anywhere in the draw is Matteo Berrettini, number 34 in the world who made a great comeback last season with three ATP titles won. And a top seed in Australia who was long pursued but narrowly missed out on.
A tricky match for the top seeds could also be the one with Jakub Mensik, a Czech player on the rise and now number 49 in the world at just 19 years old. Another name to keep an eye on is Alexandre Muller who has just won the Hong Kong tournament and arrives in Melbourne ranked number 56 in the world and with great confidence.
How could we not include Nick Kyrgios in this list? His condition, especially in the best of 5 sets, is yet to be verified given his substantial inactivity for some time due to multiple injuries, but it would certainly be a top match if he were to face a top player.
A sixth name could also be added: that of Reilly Opelka, although his situation will have to be evaluated after his withdrawal in Brisbane.
Tennis World USA