The 2025 Australian Open continues on Monday, January 13 as Carlos Alcaraz, Jack Draper and Alexei Popyrin are amongst those to take to court for their openers. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Melbourne.
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Carlos Alcaraz v Alexander Shevchenko Preview
Head-to-Head: Their only previous meeting came at the Madrid Masters last year and Alcaraz dropped just three games in his win over Shevchenko.
By any standards, Carlos Alcaraz had a year to remember in 2024.
The Spaniard, who had won a Grand Slam title in each of the previous two seasons, added two more in 2024 with victories at the French Open and Wimbledon.
And yet, he ended the season ranked three in the world behind Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev. Sinner, especially matched Alcaraz’s efforts in winning a couple of majors but also went a step further than that with his performances at the ATP Finals and other tournaments.
Alcaraz will get his chance to get the better of Sinner later in the tournament but for now, he needs to get the ball rolling for 2025 in what will be his first match of the season.
Alexander Shevchenko, who has fallen to 72nd in the world from his previous-best ranking of 45th, will enter the tournament on the back of a 2-2 record for the season so far. Among his victories consisted of one at the United Cup against Stefanos Tsitsipas but he then lost to Pablo Carreno Busta and Hubert Hurkacz as well.
Can he put a semblance of a fight against a player so confident?
Alcaraz v Shevchenko prediction: Alcaraz to win in straight sets: 3/10
Jack Draper v Mariano Navone Preview
Head-to-Head: This will be their second meeting with the first one having gone in favour of Jack Draper at the 2024 Queen’s Club competition.
2024 was a year to remember for Jack Draper as he clinched his maiden – and then a second – ATP title of his career. These wins came on grass at Stuttgart and on indoor hardcourt in Vienna, pulling the Brit into the top 20 of the ATP Rankings.
He ended the previous season with a third round exit at the Paris Masters at the hands of Alex de Minaur and interestingly enough hasn’t played any tennis this season so far. Some of it was to do with his hip injury and it would be interesting to see how he goes on his return.
Fortunately for Draper, he will be up against a player who hasn’t done too much in hardcourt competitions anyway.
Last year, Mariano Navone featured in seven such tournaments and won just two main draw matches. Those two wins, incidentally, were Navone’s first ever on the surface in his career.
And he has started off this season with a first round loss in Brisbane and a second round exit at Auckland. Things could get very challenging for him here.
Draper v Navone prediction: Draper to win in straight sets: 8/13
Thiago Seyboth Wild v Fabian Marozsan Preview
Head-to-Head: They faced off at the Indian Wells Open last year in what was their only previous meeting and Marozsan had won that match in straight sets.
Fabian Marozsan has fallen to 57th in the world, about 20 spots below his career-best but he showed signs of returning back to full form at the Hong Kong Open.
Starting out as a 7/5 underdog in his opener against Roman Safiullin, Marozsan sent him packing in the first round before causing the upset of this early portion of the season when he ousted Andrey Rublev in the second.
While Marozsan lost in the quarterfinal to Juncheng Shang, he will be fairly confident coming into this encounter against Thiago Seyboth Wild.
One of the reasons for that is Seyboth Wild’s record on hardcourt surfaces in general and the Australian Open in particular. The Brazilian player hasn’t won a single match at this venue before this and typically struggles on this surface.
Last year was the first time ever that Seyboth Wild won a couple of rounds in hardcourt competitions around the world but he hasn’t had any fine-tuning this year in the lead-up to the Australian Open.
Seyboth Wild v Marozsan prediction: Marozsan to win AND Both players to win a set: 6/4
Alexei Popyrin v Corentin Moutet Preview
Head-to-Head: They have faced off three times at the highest level and Moutet leads Popyrin 2-1. Both of Moutet’s wins came in hardcourt competitions while Popyrin defeated his opponent the last they faced off on the clay courts of Monte-Carlo Masters.
Alexei Popyrin has inched up to being the 25th-ranked player in the world and a lot has to do with the manner in which he has played over the past couple of seasons.
He won a title in Umag in 2023 but topped it by clinching the Masters 1000 title at Montreal in 2024. The Aussie then finished the season with a fourth round appearance at the US Open and a third round exit in Shanghai.
Popyrin, however, hasn’t had a great start to the season with his only match in Brisbane leading to a defeat. That he lost to the 7/5 underdog Matteo Arnaldi makes it a surprising pill to swallow.
And while he is going to take on a player ranked 69th in the world here, Corentin Moutet has beaten him twice on hardcourt surfaces.
That could be a factor but it must be quickly added here that those results are already more than three years old. Also Moutet hasn’t yet taken to court this season for a competitive match.
We could see a bit of a fight here and the match could see a fourth, possibly fifth set.
Popyrin v Moutet prediction: Over 3.5 sets in the match: 13/20
Other Australian Open 2025 Predictions of the Day
- James McCabe v Martin Landaluce: Over 3.5 sets in the match: 8/13
