Some of the opening round matches at the Australian Open 2025 will be played on Monday, January 13 as Iga Swiatek, Jelena Ostapenko and Elina Svitolina take to court for their openers. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Melbourne.
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Iga Swiatek v Katerina Siniakova Preview
Head-to-Head: This will be the first meeting between Swiatek and Siniakova.
Iga Swiatek has stuff going for her, some of it related to her performances and some other which is to do with the doping allegations.
While Swiatek has already served out her suspension, she has admitted that it took an emotional toll on her. And while it’s anybody’s guess whether it was also the reason for her under-par performances in the second half of the 2024 season, the fact is Swiatek was knocked out in the third round at Wimbledon and the quarterfinals at the US Open last year.
This year, she has already lost a match to Cori Gauff, in the final of the United Cup, raising question-marks over her invincibility.
Let’s not forget though that for all that’s gone on with respect to Swiatek’s form, she is still the world number two, a Grand Slam winner in 2024 and enters this competition on the back of a 4-1 win-loss record at the United Cup earlier this year.
And she is facing Katerina Siniakova who needed qualifiers to make it through to the main draw of the Adelaide International before getting knocked out by Diana Shnaider in the first round.
Siniakova has won just one match at this tournament in her previous six appearances here and it looks highly unlikely she is adding another to that tally any time soon.
Swiatek v Siniakova prediction: Swiatke to win in straight sets: 3/10
Jelena Ostapenko v Belinda Bencic Preview
Head-to-Head: There have been two previous meetings between these two players, with both winning one. At the 2018 Indian Wells Open, Ostapenko defeated Bencic in three sets before the Swiss player had her revenge at the 2020 Australian Open.
It’s been bit of a surprising start to the 2025 season for Jelena Ostapenko who has lost two of the three matches she’s played. It started with an opening loss at the Brisbane International, going down to Marie Bouzkova before losing to Madison Keys in Adelaide.
And even the match she won, Ostapenko was forced to come back from being a set down against Magdalena Frech despite being a 7/10 favourite.
Belinda Bencic, on the other hand, has returned to the circuit a lot hungrier, having been away on maternity leave for a season. She began the year with a 1-1 record at the United Cup, was forced to feature in the qualifiers of the Adelaide International which she won before making the second round there.
Liudmilla Samsonova got the better of Bencic in that competition but not before she had put up a solid fight.
It would probably be fair to say that Bencic has come back rather well but one hasn’t seen too much of her against the top players and at world number 17, Ostapenko is one of those.
Despite the Latvian’s slow start, we can see her giving Bencic a bit of a run and at 8/5 for her win, we think those are tempting odds to go for.
Ostapenko v Bencic prediction: Ostapenko to win: 8/5
Elina Svitolina v Sorana Cirstea Preview
Head-to-Head: Three previous meetings, including one at the 2016 French Open and 2021 Indian Wells Open have all resulted in Svitolina against Cirstea. They haven’t faced off in nearly four years now.
Elina Svitolina returned to competitive tennis in 2023 following the birth of her child and since then she has slowly gotten better.
This was specially on display in 2024 when she ended the year on a 30-18 win-loss and improved to 23rd in the world. A final appearance at the Auckland Open, a fourth round at the Australian Open and quarterfinalist at Wimbledon is what punctuated that effort for Svitolina last year.
Rather surprisingly, Svitolina did not feature in any of the tournaments played this year but will enter this tournament in a cheery mood after watching her husband Gael Monfils win an ATP title in a while.
Her opponent Sorana Cirstea isn’t coming off a great year on court, losing six in a row before calling off the season at Wimbledon to tend to her fitness concerns.
Cirstea kick-started 2025 with an appearance in the qualifiers of the Adelaide International but fell to a straight set loss to Jule Niemeier.
Svitolina should have this wrapped up in double-quick time.
Svitolina v Cirstea prediction: Svitolina to win in straight sets: 4/5
Katie Volynets v Rebecca Sramkova Preview
Head-to-Head: This will be the first meeting between Volynets and Sramkova.
After having made a decent start to the season when Katie Volynets won back to back matches at the Auckland Open, she lost successive matches.
Alycia Parks overcame Volynets in the quarterfinals in Auckland before Dayana Yastremska came back from a set down to hammer the American in the first round at the Hobart International.
She will hope to shrug those two losses aside, instead opting to focus on the wins over Erika Andreeva and Ann Li even as Volyets takes on a player who has had an even worse start to the year.
Rebecca Sramkova had eked out the maiden WTA title of her career last year in Hua Hin and broke into the top 50 as a result of that. She then made the third round of the China Open and was the finalist at a WTA 125 tournament in Jiujiang.
It’s not been the same for Sramkova this year. She has played in two tournaments, losing to Elina Avanesyan in Brisbane and McCartney Kessler in successive first round matches.
A tough battle could be expected here as a result with Volynets holding a slight edge.
Volynets v Sramkova prediction: Three sets in the match: 6/5
Other Australian Open 2025 Predictions of the Day
- TBA
