The 2025 Australian Open is a Grand Slam level tennis tournament is currently held at Melbourne Park on 12–26 January 2025. It is the 113th edition of the Australian Open, the 57th in the Open Era, and the first major of the year. The tournament consists of events for professional players in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Junior and wheelchair players will compete in singles and doubles tournaments.
The Australian Open is viewed as one of the fastest playing majors, as its GreenSet hard court generally plays quick. However, it is humid throughout the course of this event, and the courts play differently at different times of the day. So, while things are definitely faster Down Under, the matches can slow down.
Tennis Abstract has a Surface Speed of 1.14 for the Australian Open. That means that the tournament Ace Rate is 14% higher in Melbourne than it is on a tour-average surface.
After a thrilling 2024 season which saw Sinner’s (defending men’s singles champion) emergence at the top of the men’s game, and a competitive women’s season with Aryna Sabalenka (two-time defending women’s singles champion), the Melbourne tournament will set the tone for another intriguing year of tennis.
All of the top players in the men’s game are in Melbourne, including Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev. Novak Djokovic announced in November that he hired longtime rival Andy Murray as his new coach. Djokovic, 37, is bidding for a 25th Grand Slam singles title (to break his tie for the record with Margaret Court) and an 11th title in Australia (to tie Court’s record).
Carlos Alcaraz had a much quieter offseason. He is an Australian Open shy of a career Grand Slam. If the Spaniard wins in Melbourne in 2025 or 2026, he will become the youngest man to complete the career Slam.
No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka swept 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens in the first round. Sabalenka could get No. 5 seed Zheng Qinwen of China in the quarterfinals in what would be a rematch of the 2024 Australian Open final. Sabalenka could get No. 3 seed Coco Gauff in the semifinals in what would be a rematch of the 2023 U.S. Open final.
Coco Gauff, the No. 3 seed, changed coaches after the U.S. Open, then won the WTA Finals and recorded two straight-sets wins over Swiatek. Gauff opens against 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin. Kenin won their last meeting at 2023 Wimbledon. Gauff could face two-time Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka in the fourth round.
First-round main draw singles players received A$132,000, reflecting a 10.00% increase compared to 2024. The biggest percentage increase occurred in the third round of the singles draw, where prize money rose by 13.73% to A$290,000. Over the past decade, the total prize pool has increased by 119.32%, from the A$44 million offered in 2016.
Last 5 Australian Open Champions
| Year | Australian Open Men’s Champion | Australian Open Women’s Champion |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Novak Djokovic | Sofia Kenin |
| 2021 | Novak Djokovic | Naomi Osaka |
| 2022 | Rafael Nadal | Ashleigh Barty |
| 2023 | Novak Djokovic | Aryna Sabalenka |
| 2024 | Jannik Sinner | Aryna Sabalenka |
| 2025 | ? | ? |
The opening round of the Australian Open begins on Sunday (12 January), after qualification to decide the 16 remaining spots took place between 6-9 January.
There are 128 players in the first round, including 32 seeded players and eight wildcards. As is standard in Grand Slam competitions, men’s players will play matches the best of five sets, while female players stick to best-of-three.
Any withdrawals before the first round will be replaced by lucky losers, who are players that lost in the final round of the qualifying competition.
Lucky losers who could step up include home wildcard Blake Ellis and Jozef Kovalik in the men’s draw, as well as British no. 4 Harriet Dart and Jil Teichmann for the women.
The knockout tournament concludes with the women’s singles final on Saturday (25 January) while the men’s singles final takes place on Sunday (26 January).
Let’s refresh some of best actions from last AO.