The opening round matches at the Australian Open 2025 will continue on Tuesday, January 14 as Anna Kalinskaya and Madison Keys take to court for their openers. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Melbourne.
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Anna Kalinskaya v Kimberly Birrell Preview
Head-to-Head: Kalinskaya and Birrell haven’t faced off in a competitive match before this.
Anna Kalinskaya has slowly grown on the rankings charts and kick-started this year ranked 12th. Unfortunately for Kalinskaya she has been unable to get any kind of momentum in the lead-up to the start of this tournament.
Featuring in Brisbane for her season-opener, Kalinskaya was easily felled in the second round by Ashlyn Krueger. She then moved to Adelaide where she was drawn to face Belinda Bencic and easily lost the first set before having to retire from the match because of fitness concerns.
It would be interesting to see how she starts at this tournament given the number of points she is defending here having reached the quarterfinals last year.
And up against her is someone who should get a lot of support from the crowd, local player Kimberly Birrell. Birrell has never been ranked higher than 99th in her career but is coming into this competition with some solid form under her belt.
Birrell defeated Emma Navarro on her way to the quarterfinals in Brisbane while winning three matches in a row to qualify for the Australian Open.
With the kind of momentum she has, Birrell could prove to be a handful for Kalinskaya unless the Russian can rediscover her lost mojo.
Kalinskaya v Birrell prediction: Kalinskaya to win: 11/20
Madison Keys v Ann Li Preview
Head-to-Head: Keys and Li have never played each other in a competitive match before this.
Other than Aryna Sabalenka and Cori Gauff, the only other player to be coming into the Australian Open with some excellent form is Madison Keys.
Ranked 14th in the world, Keys has already won a title this season – which came in Brisbane – and was a quarterfinalist in Auckland before that.
In all, she has a 7-1 win-loss record for the year which includes victories over Beatriz Haddad Maia, Jelena Ostapenko, Daria Kasatkina, Liudmilla Samsonova and even Jessica Pegula.
And Keys now has a chance to make it to the second round here with some ease as she takes on the world number 84, Ann Li.
Li bumped off Sloane Stephens in her season-opener at the Auckland Open and then qualified for the Hobart International with successive wins. She followed that up with another win over Stephens but on both occasions her journey was ended in the second round.
Against the fellow American Keys, Li will have her work cut out and we think we could see a straightforward win here for the higher-ranked player.
Keys v Li prediction: Keys to win in straight sets: 1/2
Zheng Saisai v Erika Andreeva Preview
Head-to-Head: There have been no previous meetings between Saisai and Andreeva.
Zheng Saisai was once ranked 35th in the world but battled with wrist injuries which looked to have ended her career. She did not feature in any competitive tennis for two seasons between 2022 and 2023 before attempting a comeback in 2024.
There she won just one of the 11 singles matches she played in and was beaten by Ons Jabeur and Maria Sakkari in the two matches she’s featured in this season.
While she has gotten an entry into the Australian Open thanks to the protected ranking formula, Saisai will need to start winning at some stage and this could be a good chance given that she is up against a player ranked 86th in the world.
Erika Andreeva has never ranked higher than 65th and hasn’t won a main draw match at the highest level over the past four tournaments – including two this season.
She has shown the odd spark like when she made the third round in Wuhan with a win over her sister Mirra and a quarterfinal in Monterrey where she defeated Danielle Collins.
The big question now is if she can get consistent enough and this could be a good start in a tournament Erika hasn’t won a main draw match before.
Saisai v Andreeva prediction: Over 18.5 games in the match: 4/7
Anna Bondar v Wang Yafan Preview
Head-to-Head: There have been no previous meetings between these two players.
Having made the second round of the Australian Open in 2023 as her best showing, Anna Bondar will hope to emulate that when she takes on Wang Yafan, a player ranked nearly 30 places ahead of her.
Yafan made it as far as the third round at this tournament last year with shock wins over Sorana Cirstea and Emma Raducanu but hasn’t had a great start to the season.
She was down a set when she opted to retire from her opener at Brisbane because of a wrist problem. Wrist injuries do take their time to heal which gives Anna Bondar some hope.
Bondar lost in her opener at the Canberra ITF competition but then clinched successive victories in the Hobart International qualifiers to make the main draw. There Bondar was a straight-set winner over Mayar Sherif before Amanda Anisimova ended her run.
With some momentum under her belt, Bondar could edge out her Chinese opponent here.
Bondar v Yafan prediction: Bondar to win: 17/20
Other Australian Open 2025 Predictions of the Day
- Xiyu Wang v Julia Grabher: Wang to win in straight sets: 4/11
