The opening round matches continue at the Australian Open 2025 with some of these to be played on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday as Stefanos Tsitsipas, Pablo Carreno Busta and Denis Shapovalov take to court for their openers. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Melbourne.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas v Alex Michelsen Preview
Head-to-Head: There has been only one previous meeting between these two players which came at the 2024 Japan Open and Michelsen had knocked Tsitsipas out in the very first round there.
Stefanos Tsitsipas’ fall in the rankings from being a world number three at one stage to his current 11th rank has been a bit of a surprise and it’s boiled down to his performances in 2024.
While Tsitsipas won an ATP 1000 title in Monte-Carlo last year his hardcourt surface showings were anything but remarkable. Other than this fourth round appearance at the Australian Open he did not win three matches in a row all year on this surface.
And this has continued even in 2025 where he kick-started his season at the United Cup and finished with a 1-1 win-loss record. The Greek number one took his time to overcome Pablo Carreno Busta in his first match and was then defeated by Alexander Shevchenko who was 9/2 odds to win.
He will have a tricky opener in the form of Alex Michelsen who will enter the tournament ranked close to his career-best of 41st.
Michelsen has featured in a couple of competitions in the season so far and while he was ousted in the second round in Brisbane, he made it to the quarterfinals at the Adelaide International that followed.
A loss to Nishesh Basavareddy there speaks to his inconsistencies which you expect out of a player outside the top 40 but as far as troubling Tsitsipas goes, he could very well do that here.
Tsitsipas v Michelsen prediction: Tsitsipas to win AND Over 3.5 sets in the match: 7/5
Pablo Carreno Busta v Kamil Majchrzak Preview
Head-to-Head: They have never faced off at the highest level but have featured in two meetings on the Challenger circuit in which Majchrzak has won both. The two matches came on clay though.
Having made the quarterfinal of the 2017 French Open, Pablo Carreno Busta had then managed to touch his career-best ranking of 10th in the world at that time.
He hovered around that for a bit, ending in the top 25 in each of the following few years till fitness concerns forced him out for almost all of the 2023 season.
Since then, Carreno Busta has been looking to get back his mojo and slowly creeping up the ranking, currently perched at 184th in the world.
Carreno Busta started the season off with a win at the United Cup but has subsequently lost three successive matches – to Stefanos Tsitsipas in that very tournament and then to Zizou Bergs and Jakub Mensik at the Auckland Open.
He will hope he has a decent shot at winning a Grand Slam match when he takes on Kamil Majchrzak in his opener. Majchrzak, however, is coming off a superb showing in the qualifiers, growing in his confidence with some tight wins there.
What adds to Majchrzak’s chances here is his propensity for hardcourt surfaces in which he was 26-6 at all levels last year. He won six titles at the lower level in 2024 including three on the same surface.
Majchrzak might be a good bet here.
Carreno Busta v Majchrzak prediction: Majchrzak to win: 6/4
Roberto Bautista Agut v Denis Shapovalov Preview
Head-to-Head: There have been three previous meetings between these two players and all three have been won by Shapovalov. The first time they faced off was at the 2021 Wimbledon and the Canadian then beat Bautista Agut in Washington and Basel last year.
This is an interesting battle between two players who have both been top 10 at some point in their careers and are currently ranked in their 50s looking another attempt to try and get back to their glory days.
And both are coming off underwhelming starts to their seasons too.
While Roberto Bautista Agut was beaten by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in his only match of the year in Adelaide, Denis Shapovalov is 1-2 for 2025 with a first round ouster in Hong Kong and a second round loss in Adelaide.
This makes for a delicious match as a result but with Shapovalov starting out as a favourite purely from the point of his head to head against Bautista Agut.
Bautista Agut v Shapovalov prediction: Shapovalov to win: 2/5
Ugo Humbert v Matteo Gigante Preview
Head-to-Head: Humbert and Gigante have never faced off before this.
Ugo Humbert has slowly crept up the ATP Rankings with not too many talking about his performances.
Till the end of the 2022 season he was 86th in the world but a title win in Metz in 2023 and a couple of others in Dubai and Marseille in 2024 propelled him up to 13th last year.
While Humbert hasn’t begun the 2025 season too well having lost to Flavio Cobolli in the United Cup despite starting out a 1/3 favourite in that encounter, his overall hardcourt record has continued to remain solid.
And facing up to a qualifier in Matteo Gigante should make things easier for Humbert to get going in a tournament in which he had made the third round last year.
23-year-old Gigante has never been ranked better than 132nd in his career and before this, had never qualified for a Grand Slam main draw. That’s good going on its own but he might need to wait before he can register his maiden major win.
Humbert v Gigante prediction: Humbert to win in straight sets: 1/1
Other Australian Open 2025 Predictions of the Day
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