The first slam of the season has come and gone, with a familiar name repeating the same feat for a second consecutive year on the men’s side, and a wiley veteran finally securing the title that has alluded her on the women’s side.
The Australian Open brought with it many fascinating stories, such as Edinburgh’s Jacob Fearnley gate-crashing Nick Kyrgios’ grand homecoming by handing the Aussie a first-round exit.
Young guns such as Joao Fonseca, Learner Tien and Alex Michelsen all had breakout performances in the tournament, with the Brazilian Fonseca catching this writers’ eye with a fantastic display to whitewash Andrey Rublev in his first ever grand slam match.
The big names also fell early on the women’s side, with Jasmine Paolini suffering a shock early exit, as well as former grand slam winners Elena Rybakina and Naomi Osaka exiting the tournament early.
With the 2025 tennis season now well and truly underway, here are the main winners and losers from the ATP and the WTA at the 2025 Australian Open.
ATP
Winner – Jannik Sinner
Jannik Sinner had an absolutely incredible 2024, securing his first 2 grand slam titles as well as racking up 3 Masters 1000 titles and the end-of-year ATP Tour Finals. If you thought the Italian was done there, you would be dead wrong, as he picked up exactly where he left off in 2024 with a ruthless Australian Open campaign.
Sinner continues to tune out the noise surrounding his ongoing doping case in impressive fashion, winning both of the slams that have been contested whilst the murmurs of his doping case have been made public knowledge.
He didn’t have the most difficult of pathways to the final, with Holger Rune’s test in the fourth round arguably providing the 23-year-old with his toughest match,
He brushed Alexander Zverev aside in the final with another commanding victory, and his charge towards greatness doesn’t look like slowing down anytime soon.
Loser – Taylor Fritz
After an impressive showing at his home slam at the tail-end of the 2024 season, reaching the final at Flushing Meadows, Taylor Fritz landed himself in the top 4 of the ATP rankings for this first-time in his career. As a result of this, he had his own quarter of the draw at the Australian Open.
With some new pressure and expectations on his shoulders, Fritz defeat Jenson Brooksby and Cristian Garin in good fashion, only dropping 8 games across the pair of matches.
HIs flawless start hit a brick wall when he matched up against Gael Monfils in the third round. The 38-year-old La Monf played some incredible tennis on the day, defeating the American 3-1 and dumping Fritz out prematurely.
Falling short of his quarter-final feat at last year’s Australian Open, Fritz will be hoping for an improvement if he hopes to maintain his career-high rankings in the coming months.
Winner – Ben Shelton
The hard-hitting American reached further than any of his fellow countryman on the men’s side as he continued to show that he has the skills to reach the very top of his game.
He reached his first-ever Australian Open semi-final and his second slam semi-final of his career, being unlucky to run into Sinner in the semi-final, a player who is in a league of his own at the moment.
Shelton seems to raise his game when it comes to the big occasions, with the 22-year-old putting it down to his “toughness and his competitiveness”, and he will be a key player to watch this season.
Loser – Daniil Medvedev
Daniil Medvedev, as he famously described himself, is a “hard-court specialist.” The Australian Open has been one of his favoured slams in years gone by, reaching 3 of the last 5 finals in Melbourne.
The Russian is used to playing 5-setters in the Melbourne heat, playing four of them on his route to the final last year, but no one foresaw him squeezing past world number-423 Kasidit Samrej in five-sets in the first round.
That match clearly took its toll as in the second round, he had to force a fifth set against 19-year-old Learner Tien. He wasn’t able to deploy his usual fifth-set magic this time, crashing out in the second-round after reaching the final the year prior.
An early exit and $76,000 worth of fines, this was most definitely a tournament for him to forget.
WTA
Winner – Madison Keys
The story of the tournament was undoubtedly the story of Madison Keys as he she finally had her moment in the limelight, and what a way to do so.
She defeated world number two Iga Swiatek in the semi-finals, and one-upped that by defeating the imperious reigning champion and world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the final, the first to defeat the top two in the world rankings to win a slam since 2009.
The 29-year-old has had a hard time of it in recent years, with her 2024 season being one plagued with injury, affecting her Australian Open and Wimbledon campaigns.
More than 7 years after reaching her 1st grand slam final, she finally had her moment, and she played some incredible tennis in doing so, and as a result also matched her career-highest ranking of 7.
Loser – Elena Rybakina
A lot had been expected of Elena Rybakina heading into this season, helped partly by Goran Ivanisevic joining her coaching team
However, injuries had their part to play in the Kazakh’s early exit from the tournament in round three, losing to eventual winner Madison Keys.
It was hard to watch her at times manage her way through the opening two rounds with an injury, often relying on her incredible power to see herself past her early opponents.
Following the tournament, Elena parted ways with Ivanisevic, putting an end to what looked like a promising partnership to watch heading into the new season.
Rybakina needs consistency to keep up with Sabalenka and Swiatek, and hopefully her injury issues will be behind her soon.
Winner – Paula Badosa
Just a year ago, when Paula Badosa made her return from injury, she was ranked 100 in the world.
Now, after becoming the fourth Spaniard of the Open Era to reach a women’s slam semi-final, she will return to the top ten once again.
She had a fantastic tournament, playing the best tennis we have seen from her since her comeback, and the highlight of her tournament was a straight-sets victory over Coco Gauff in the quarter-finals.
Back to playing like one of the best in the women’s game once again, Paula Badosa will be one to watch in 2025.
Loser – Zheng Qinwen
Zheng Qinwen had become China’s latest tennis star last year, winning Olympic gold in Paris and becoming only the second Chinese women to crack the top ten.
Her remarkable 2024 season all started in Melbourne, where she reached the finals of the Australian Open, losing out to Aryna Sabalenka.
Because of this, lofty expectations where placed on her shoulders heading into the tournament once again this year, and it was a giant upset to see her lose out to Laura Siegemund in the second round.
Her ranking will take a hit as a result of this, but Zheng will be hoping to quickly rediscover her best tennis as she looks to continue her rise in the sport this season, with a first slam victory on her radar.
