By Maria Somova, Year 12
The Australian Open Grand Slam marks the start of the main tennis season every year. Organised by Tennis Australia at Melbourne Park in Melbourne since 1988, this ATP Tournament attracted over 1.2 million attendees in 2025. Until 1987 it was played on grass courts like Wimbledon, but since then three types of hard court have been used. Novak Djokovic holds the most single titles for men – 10, and Margaret Court holds 11 – the most in women’s tennis.
This year’s AO was full of unexpected victories and defeats. Medvedev won his first grand slam, the US Open, after the birth of his first daughter. As his second daughter was born five days before the start of Australian Open, many predicted that this would motivate and push him to his second Grand Slam victory, however, he was defeated by 19 year old Learner Tiem a score of 6-3 7-6(7-4) 6-8(8-10) 1-6 7-6(10-7) in second round. Similarly to Rublev and Tsitsipas who left the competition right after the first round. Both lost to the New Gen players, marking the early rise of the new tennis era.
Another remarkable event was the withdrawal of Novak Djokovic from the semifinals. After his spectacular victory against the Spanish star – Carlos Alcaraz, many tennis fans and professionals hoped that he would continue on and win his 25th Grand Slam final, however he had to withdraw after the second set against Zverev due to a torn muscle in his leg. This pushed the German into his third Grand Slam final against Jannick Sinner, where he lost with a score of 6-3 7-6(7-4) 6-3 for the aspiring Italian. The next Australian Open is predicted to have many new generation young players playing at the same level as the current top 5. Thus, making it very difficult for Zverev to reach his long desired first Grand Slam title.
Jannikc Sinner won his second consecutive Australian Open title this year. In his final match against Zverev he has repeated the record that both Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal have set in their careers – in the final match he reached and won 2 break points out of 10, while his opponent, Zverev was not able to win any. Sinner is also the first player in the last 50 years who managed to win every single player from the top 10 in one year during all Grand Slams.
Overall, the Australian Open was an interesting opening for the 2025 tennis season. The Australian crowd is know for its vocal engagement. They continued this reputation as many booed Djokovic leaving the court after his injury.
