Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton will be among those in second round action at the Australian Open 2025 on Thursday, January 16. Here’s the preview, predictions and tips for these matches from Melbourne.
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Taylor Fritz v Cristian Garin Preview
Head-to-Head: Fritz holds a 2-1 advantage over Garin in previous meetings with all those matches having come on clay – in Houston 2022, Madrid 2023 and Munich 2024.
Taylor Fritz was coming into the Australian Open having won four of his five matches at the United Cup and was a heavy favourite against fellow American Jenson Brooksby. As it turned out, the world number four lived up to his top billing and cruised to a straightforward victory over Brooksby.
He dropped a mere five games in the entire match to set up a meeting with Chile’s Cristian Garin.
Garin himself is a former world number 17 but those glory days seem to be way past him. Especially on hardcourt surfaces with most of his success having come on clay – he has five ATP titles on red dirt.
Over his past two appearances at the Australian Open, Garin hadn’t won his first round match and while his opening round opponent here, Borna Coric was in no great form himself, one would have expected him to come through.
Instead, Garin surprised a few, probably his own self too as he raced off to a 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 win over Coric to seal a second round berth. It was his first main draw win since July 2024.
Against Fritz, however, it’s difficult to see him do something similar.
Fritz v Garin prediction: Fritz to win in straight sets: 8/13
Ben Shelton v Pablo Carreno Busta Preview
Head-to-Head: This will be the first meeting between Shelton and Carreno Busta.
Following a first round loss at the Auckland Open to Jakub Mensik, questions had been raised off Ben Shelton’s chances at this year’s Australian Open.
Touted to be USA’s next big hope, the world number 20 shrugged off that showing as he clinched his second round berth with a straight-set win over the fighting Brandon Nakashima.
Things could have gone the other way in each of the three sets but two hours and 42 minutes later, Shelton had come off a 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-5 winner. Shelton saved five set-points in the very first set and once he had clinched the ensuing tie-breaker he slowly came into his own with his serve.
Against Pablo Carren Busta, Shelton will start a huge favourite again despite his opponent’s straight-set win over Kamil Majchrzak.
Carreno Busta did not need too much time on court for his 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 victory but his real test will come now as the Spaniard tries to find his way to winning more main draw matches.
With fitness being an issue in recent times for Carreno Busta, he was 10-12 last year across all circuits but did make a semifinal appearance at the Winston-Salem Open. Can he now put up a bit of a fight here?
Shelton v Carreno Busta prediction: Over 36.5 games in the match: 4/5
