The second round action at the Australian Open 2025 kick-starts on Wednesday, January 15 and Carlos Alcaraz will take on Yoshihito Nishioka while Jack Draper will face Thanasi Kokkinakis. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Melbourne.
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Carlos Alcaraz v Yoshihito Nishioka Preview
Head-to-Head: Their only previous meeting came at Paris in 2022 and Alcaraz had won in straight sets.
Carlos Alcaraz registered a straight-set win over Alexander Shevchenko in the first round but there were a few question-marks over his serving. He was broken twice in the match, thanks probably to the fact that he is still getting used to his relatively new serve and that might have caused some problems.
The Spaniard was still good enough to take down Shevchenko in less than two hours, breaking him eight times from the 19 opportunities he.
What was interesting to see was Alcaraz, who was in his first match of the season, tried a few different things and while he wasn’t successful at all of them, he did not spend a lot of time winning this.
His opponent, Yoshihito Nishioka was up against Tunisian qualifier Aziz Dougaz in his opener and while he was 1/6 to grab the win, it took him some time to get going.
Dougaz, ranked 231st in the world, grabbed the first set before Nishioka clawed back, slowly and steadily to fish out the win.
Nishioka’s record this season hadn’t been too great before the Australian Open with the world number 65 winning just one main draw match across two tournaments. Things could get exponentially more difficult for him here.
Alcaraz v Nishioka prediction: Over 26.5 games in the match: 4/9
Jack Draper v Thanasi Kokkinakis Preview
Head-to-Head: There have been three previous meetings between them and Draper leads Kokkinakis 2-1. Draper won their 2023 Davis Cup match and beat him in Madrid last year while Kokkinakis clinched a three-set win in Los Cabos in 2024.
Despite being a heavy favourite going into his first round match against Mariano Navone, Jack Draper had a struggle on his hands. Down a set and then 1-2 in the encounter, the Briton pulled out four breaks of serve in the final two sets to clinch his win in a match lasting four hours.
Some of this could be attributed to rustiness with Draper having not played competitive tennis since the Paris Masters last year.
Which is why things could get a lot tougher for him when he takes to court against the local lad Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Ranked 71st in the world, Kokkinakis has had his own fitness concerns, having to pull out of the quarterfinals at the Adelaide International last week. The Aussie, however, looked to be moving well in his first round win over Roman Safiullin.
Much like Draper, even Kokkinakis needed four hours to beat Saifullin 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).
The problem, however, was that despite putting his mind over matter, Kokkinakis could be seen struggling with some other parts of his body including thigh and hip.
That could be a telling factor in this second round match.
Draper v Kokkinakis prediction: Draper to win: 1/2
