Gael Monfils and Lorenzo Musetti 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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Gael Monfils v Daniel Altmaier Preview
Head-to-Head: Monfils has beaten Altmaier in their only previous meeting that came in the 2023 Vienna Open.
It was a first round match to remember when Gael Monfils took to court against fellow Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
It lasted three hours and 50 minutes, saw three tie-breakers and had Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard miss out three set-points in the first set and Monfils fritter away five match-points in the encounter before it drew to a close.
With this win, Monfils had clinched six matches in a row following his Auckland Open triumph last week and will now enter this second round match knowing he has a decent chance of getting through.
That’s because he’s facing the 101st-ranked Daniel Altmaier who had never made it past the first round in his three previous appearances at the Australian Open.
This time around, he was up against Francisco Comesana and much like Monfils, ended up needing five sets to come through.
Altmaier was on court for three hours and 25 minutes for his 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4 win that saw him lose his serve twice in the encounter. He broke Comesana three times to register his first main draw win for the season following attempts at Hong Kong and Auckland.
Monfils v Altmaier prediction: Under 40.5 games in the match: 4/5
Lorenzo Musetti v Denis Shapovalov Preview
Head-to-Head: Their only previous meeting came at the 2024 Indian Wells Open and Musetti edged past Shapovalov in three sets.
Ranked at a career-best of 15th in the world at the moment Lorenzo Musetti’s win in the first round has meant that he has now defended his points from the previous Australian Open.
Another victory here should give him a chance to add to his ranking points tally and as a result, even jump up the rankings.
It would obviously depend drastically on how far along does he go in the tournament but the opening win over Matteo Arnaldi would have helped his confidence.
Sure, Musetti did take four hours and seven minutes to win his four-setter that had four sets but more vitally eight breaks of his serve, which might put some question-marks around this encounter against Denis Shapovalov.
Shapovalov was himself involved in a four-setter against Roberto Bautista Agut and it could easily have gone into the fifth set but for the four set-points that his opponent frittered away.
That made it Shapovalov’s second win of the season to go with two losses and he will now look to clinch another win to get to his 2023-equalling performance at this tournament. Musetti, however, could hold a bit of an edge.
Musetti v Shapovalov prediction: Musetti to win: 1/1
