The opening round matches at the Australian Open 2025 will continue on Monday, January 13 as Novak Djokovic, Jordan Thompson and Thanasi Kokkinakis take to court for their openers. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Melbourne.
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Novak Djokovic v Nishesh Basaravareddy Preview
Head-to-Head: This will be the first meeting between Djokovic and American qualifier Basavareddy.
World number seven and the 10-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic will kick-start his campaign for a record-extending 25th Grand Slam title when he takes on Nishesh Basavareddy, a 19-year-old in his maiden major.
Djokovic is coming off a bitter-sweet season, one in which he did win a gold medal at the Olympics but also one rare season in which he did not win a single Grand Slam. His ranking has fallen to seventh in the world as a result which has also meant he could cross paths with Carlos Alcaraz as early as in the quarterfinals.
That’s for later. Right now Djokovic has a qualifier to contend with having not the best of starts to this season either.
He was taken down in the quarterfinal stage of the Brisbane International, losing to Reilly Opelka there. Add that to the fact that Basavareddy is one of the upcoming players and has already made the semifinals of the Auckland Open earlier this year makes this for a bit of a banana peel for the Serb.
One that Djokovic should still go on to win but not before Basavareddy tests him out in a set and a half.
Djokovic v Basaravareddy prediction: Over 27.5 games in the match: 2/5
Jordan Thompson v Dominik Koepfer Preview
Head-to-Head: While these two have never faced off at the highest level, there have been three previous Challenger circuit meetings before this in the 2017-18 period. Thompson has won them all.
Ranked 27th in the world, Jordan Thompson kick-started his campaign this season at the Brisbane International. He shocked Matteo Berrettini in his opener before easing to a win over Alex Michelsen in the second round to seal a berth in the quarterfinals.
Unfortunately for Thompson, he was forced to retire from that match against Grigor DImitrov, suffering from a calf injury. According to reports his calf was said to be already sore before the match.
That’s the only thing that could given Dominik Koepfer some hope in a hardcourt match against Thompson. Because the 123rd-ranked Koepfer is more of a clay-courter than any other surface and has just two main draw wins at this tournament in his career.
Koepfer featured at the Canberra Challenger, only to lose his opener before surprising Ethan Quinn on his way to qualifying for the main draw here.
If Thompson’s more or less fit, this could prove to be a bit of a cakewalk for the Aussie.
Thompson v Koepfer prediction: Thompson to win AND Both players to win a set: 11/8
Jakub Mensik v Nikoloz Basilashvili Preview
Head-to-Head: Their only previous meeting came on the Challenger circuit last year and Jakub Mensik had won that in straight sets.
Jakub Mensik has had a quite solid start to the season, one that has seen him make the quarterfinals at both the competitions he’s played in so far.
He was a straight-set winner over Mikhail Kukushkin and Dusan Lajovic at Brisbane before Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard got the better of him in the last eight round.
And this was followed by a hard-fought victory over Pablo Carreno Busta and a shock win against Ben Shelton in Auckland before Nuno Borges ended his stay there.
As a result, Mensik will enter the Australian Open ranked at his career-peak of 48th and faces an opponent 160 places behind him.
Nikoloz Basilashvili has been around since 2007 and reached a peak ranking of 16th some years ago. Since then his tennis has been conspicuous by his inconsistencies and his ranking has taken a tumble to outside the top 200.
He did make the main draw here with three successive straight-set wins which could be a pointer to a change in fortunes for the Georgian but Mensik looks to be in a zone of his own at the moment.
Mensik v Basilashvili prediction: Mensik to win AND Both players to win a set: 6/4
Thanasi Kokkinakis v Roman Safiullin Preview
Head-to-Head: Their only previous meeting came on the Challenger circuit in 2021 when Kokkinakis defeated Safiullin in a hardcourt competition.
Thanasi Kokkinakis may or may not take to court after what transpired at the Adelaide International a couple of days ago. He had won his way to the quarterfinals of that tournament, overcoming Yoshihito Nishioka and Tomas Martin Etcheverry in three hard-fought sets but was then forced to withdraw from the tournament.
It was revealed to be a shoulder injury, leaving the Aussie about three days to recover in time for his opener in this competition.
Kokkinakis would know that if fully fit he has a good chance here against Roman Safiullin, a player struggling for results. The Russian began his season with a shock loss at the hands of Fabian Marozsan in Hong Kong and was then beaten in the opener of the Adelaide International by Manuel Guinard – Guinard was 19/5 going into that encounter.
It’s to call the result of a match where a player’s fitness is in question but one way or the other we think Safiullin could snap a set off his opponent here.
Kokkinakis v Safiullin prediction: Safiullin to win a set – Yes: 2/7
Other Australian Open 2025 Predictions of the Day
- TBA
