The month of January just finished up, which means another Australian Open has finished up. This tournament is the one that kicks off the new year for professional tennis and sets the tone for what may happen for the sport. This year, the tone was set the same way it was last year, as world number one Jannik Sinner was able to win the 2025 Australian Open, defending the title he won last year. This is Sinner’s third grand slam championship win, as he won the 2024 U.S. Open and, as previously mentioned, the 2024 Australian Open. That means that the Italian has won the last three hard-court grand slams held in a row, which is quite an impressive showing. Nevertheless, while the winner of the tournament is what we were all waiting to see, there were certainly a lot of other exciting matchups and moments to be found in this tournament. Even though there were plenty of players that we all pretty much knew were not going to win, it was entertaining to see their capabilities. In addition, while we knew they would not win, some of these underdog players were able to go further than we may have expected, and it is always nice to see that happen. That is the beauty of a sport like tennis; you never know what may happen. The number one player snagging the win may seem predictable, but there truly is a lot to note about this thrilling tournament.

Since about the end of 2023, Sinner has really been on a roll, becoming a dominant player deserving of being number one that no one would want to mess with. This tournament proved that fact. Many people may have been predicting some other players to be the victor, but it was clear early on that this was Sinner’s tournament to win. Out of the seven matches that he played, he only dropped a set in two of them, meaning he did not play any five set matches. One set was dropped in the second round to Australian wildcard Tristan Schoolkate, who still has time to grow, and the other was dropped to number-13 seed Danish Holger Rune in the fourth round. Rune came up around the same time as Sinner, and in the early days it looked like Rune would be superior. However, as Sinner went up, Rune started being less consistent and going down, going against people’s expectations. Nevertheless, the fact that he made it to the fourth round and got a set off a fiery Sinner demonstrates that there is still a bright future for the Dane. Other than these matches, Sinner was able to have many straightforward wins, including a quarterfinal win over number-eight seed Alex De Minaur in the quarterfinals. De Minaur was the best ranked Australian of the tournament, which means, arguably, he had a home court advantage. Those Australian fans can be quite faithful to their brethren, which could have been a lot for the Italian to deal with. However, based on how the match went, it appears that that did not matter, as Sinner sailed through with a 6-3 6-2 6-1 scoreline.

Sinner also did a stupendous job in the following semifinals match against the number-21 seed Ben Shelton. The American has been making a name for himself since winning the 2022 NCAA Singles Championship, and this was actually his second Grand Slam semi-final after the 2023 U.S. Open. Getting to a second one shows that Shelton may be more than a flash in the pan and could be a top 10 player one day. The American and the Italian faced off in one of the two penultimate matches, and while Shelton was certainly deserving of this spot, Sinner has been able to make everyone look weak lately, coasting right through. The same case was true for the finals, where Sinner faced the number two seed Alexander Zverev. Zverev has been a top five player for a long time and has a better head to head against Sinner. Nevertheless, it was the Italian’s time and the player that had previously lost to Zverev is not the player that he is today. Sinner did not even face a break point in the final, a distinction that has rarely been achieved in the history of grand slam finals. Sinner just could not be stopped. He was able to prove in this match, and throughout this tournament, why he has been ranked number one for over half a year. Hard court grand slams are becoming Sinner’s forte, as this is his 21st straight hard court grand slam match win. Sinner is not slowing down anytime soon, so when it comes to the hard courts, all of the male tennis players should watch out.

As mentioned before, the number two player Zverev was the Italian’s opponent. Before describing Zverev’s run and his half of the draw, I do want to acknowledge the domestic abuse allegations against Zverev. I believe the accusers, but I will be looking at the facts of his run as a perspective for the finals and the bottom half of the draw. Moving forward,  Zverev has been fairly consistent these past few years, always going far in big tournaments. Nevertheless, the German never seemed to be able to get over the hump of actually winning a grand slam. This championship was Zverev’s third final, and despite his history, people go through the motions of believing that this could be the time that he wins. To be fair, it is not too weird to think that. After all, he played some terrific tennis throughout this tournament. Much like Sinner, Zverev only dropped two sets before reaching the finals. His first set was dropped to the French number 14 seed, Ugo Humbert. That one set could have come from Humbert seeking vengeance, as Zverev recently defeated Humbert at the Paris Masters in October, which was the Frenchman’s first finals and it was in his home country. Humbert is a tough and often underestimated player, so it is not a surprise that he was able to put up a challenge against the German man. The other set taken from Zverev before the finals was by American number 12 seed Tommy Paul in the quarterfinals. Paul had a slow start compared to some of his fellow Americans, but he has really made a name for himself these past couple of years, even making the semifinals at this tournament two years ago. In addition, his impressive run in this tournament led to him a career-high ranking of number nine. The American put up a fight, having set points in each of the first three sets. However, while that may be the case, Zverev was the stronger opponent in their match, and he was able to make his way through to the semi finals. 

Zverev’s semifinal match was where he met up with the number seven seed, the Serbian Novak Djokovic. While he may be out of the top five at the moment, Djokovic has 24 grand slams under his belt, including 10 Australian Opens, and is arguably one of the best tennis players of all time. Zverev has defeated Djokovic before, but the Serbian is usually a tennis player’s biggest nightmare, and people were thinking that the match might not go so great for the German. After all, he defeated the number three seed and four-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz in the previous round. However, the Djokovic-versus-Zverev match did not go as expected. The two played one tiebreaker set that Zverev won, and then Djokovic had to retire from the match due to a hamstring tear. It is clear that between how he was looking during that set and his eventual retirement, Djokovic is not the player that he used to be. He is 37 years old, and many of the players from his generation have already retired from the sport. It is impressive that he is still going and can make it as far as the semifinals, but he might need to take care of himself and make way for a new generation. After this abridged match came Zverev’s Australian Open final debut, which, as mentioned before, did not go so well for him. He just does not seem to know how to rise to the occasion when the pressure is on. With people like Sinner, someone who is five years younger than him, taking him down, he may just be seen as one of the most skilled players without a Grand Slam trophy on the mantle.

The number one and two players may have been in the finals as expected, but that does not mean that the rest of the draw went the predictable route. Some of the big upsets of the tournament involved five people in the top 15 getting out in the first or second round. One of those upsets involved Russian number nine seed Andrey Rublev losing to Brazilian qualifier Joao Fonseca in the latter’s grand slam debut. Despite Rublev having a great talent and consistently making Grand Slam quarterfinals, the Russian has been in a bit of slump lately with a couple of early exits in tournaments in recent months. There appears to be some sort of block in him lately that is causing him to not fully reach his potential. On the other hand, it is possible that the Brazilian, who is 18, could be the next big thing in the sport and we could be underestimating him. He did lose in the next round to Lorenzo Sonego, but he could still be working on his craft. If his match against Rublev is an indicator, we may hear the name Fonseca quite a bit in the future. Another unexpected first round exit was Greek number 11 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas losing to American Alex Michelson. Similar to Rublev, Tsitsipas has been facing some performance difficulties in the past few months. The Greek tennis player had also lost in the first round at the most recent US Open, which was to Thanasi Kokkinakis. Tsitsipas was ranked number three in the world only a couple of years ago, and now he is not even in the top 10, so there is clearly a problem somewhere. Not to mention that he was a finalist in this tournament two years ago. Of course, none of this information is meant to discredit his American opponent. The 20-year-old Michelsen has become a true contender recently, and even though he was not seeded, it was not surprising for him to be capable of defeating Tsitsipas. He had done it once before at the Japan Open. Also, based on Michelsen’s performance at this tournament, this loss was not one that should embarrass Tsitsipas too much. Michelsen made it to the fourth round which included a third round win over number 19 seed Karen Khachanov. That is the farthest that Michelsen had ever gone in a grand slam. He did eventually lose to De Minaur, but he should definitely still be proud of himself and see that there is a bright future ahead of him. As for Tsitsipas, he should figure out what his tennis issues are at the moment, so he can go back to being the two-time Grand Slam champion that he is deep down. Also, another interesting first round loss, if we want to call it a loss, of note was Bulgarian number 10 seed Grigor Dimitrov retiring in his first match after about a set and a third to lucky loser Francesco Passaro. A retirement is not necessarily good for evaluating either player’s skills, but it represents some of the difficulties that Dimitrov has faced recently, which is relevant considering his generation is called the lost generation. People had high hope for Dimitrov, and now it is almost like he is falling apart. It goes to show that we may think about a tennis player based on an early resume, but their previous experience will not be able to carry them into their questionable future.

The second round also saw some interesting upsets. For starters, there was Russian number five seed Daniil Medvedev losing in this round to American qualifier Learner Tien. His qualification for the Next Generation Finals last year proved that he was a player to watch out for. Nevertheless, this was a surprising result since Medvedev, who has a Grand Slam victory on his resume, was last year’s finalist and made it to the quarterfinals at the relatively recent U.S. Open. That being said, it is important to note that this match lasted almost five hours, meaning that Medvedev really made Tien work for this win. Tien made it to the fourth round of this tournament before losing to Sonego, the farthest he had ever gone in a Grand Slam. It might be too soon to say, but this win was most likely not a lucky moment, it was the beginning of something great. In addition to that win, another second round upset came in the form of Norwegian number six seed Casper Ruud losing to the Czech Jakub Mensik. Like some of the previous upset victors, Mensik is still a teenager, 19 years old, but has already demonstrated his impressive skills and shown that there will likely be a bright future ahead of him. He is also currently the youngest player in the top 50, so there is proof that he is excelling a bit higher than the rest of his age group. He did lose in the next round to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, but the Czech man still has a lot of potential for his career. People will likely see that potential come to life in the next few years. When it comes to Ruud, a two-time Grand Slam finalist, the Norwegian has not been able to stand out in a while. He did win a couple tournaments last year, but no one was thinking that he would get a third grand slam final this tournament. Mensik’s win, along with many of the other upset wins, demonstrate that even though people like Ruud are not that old, there is a new and exciting group of players that are bringing the heat and doing what they can to be at the forefront of the men’s tennis world. However, despite that being the case, another upset to look at is American number four seed Taylor Fritz losing to French Gael Monfils in the third round. Fritz was recently in the finals of the U.S. Open, and people believed his career was only going to pick up from there. Therefore, a third-round exit was quite a surprise to an unseeded player. However, Monfils is unlike the other unseeded players. He is 38 years old, a two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist, and a former number six in the world. He may never be a Djokovic, but the Frenchman is still showing, especially with this Fritz win, that even at his “old” age, he should not be counted out. Monfils made it to the fourth round, where he lost to Shelton, which is still quite an impressive result. So, even though the teenagers are trying to stake their claim over the current generation, the old generation will not go down without a fight.

So, the big question is whether or not the results of the first big tournament of the year actually mean something. Fortunately, we will not have to wait too long to find out. The next grand slam is not until May, but there are plenty of important tournaments between now and then that will give us some answers. Personally, I believe that while there may be some flukes in there, some players’ results in this tournament should give a big hint on what we should expect from them. Perhaps the young players that were able to stand out in this tournament will find the clay or grass to be more suitable to their style, and they will get to stand out even more. Either way, this Australian Open was certainly one to show that a new crop of players has arrived, and they are prepared to take out the current generation one by one. Overall, many players should feel proud of themselves, as winning even a match at a grand slam is a great accomplishment. Winning multiple matches usually means you are on your way towards, or in the middle of, a notable tennis career. As mentioned before, the French Open is not until May if people want to see how all of these players will fare at another Grand Slam. However, the next tournament that people actually should keep their eyes on is the Indian Wells Masters 1000 in March, which is often referred to as the unofficial Grand Slam. It may not count as much, but the best of the best will be there and with it being in only two months, it will be a real indicator if some of the more random winners of this tournament can back up their victories. The one thing that seems to be guaranteed about men’s tennis at the moment is that 2025 is going to be a thrilling year for tennis that will welcome some fun results for a new generation.