It’s around this time of year when, especially in Canada, our TV sets become an escape.
PGA Tour events in Hawaii. The Super Bowl in a warm environment. And of course the Australian Open, also known as ‘The Happy Slam’, which sounds good.
Last year it was Italian Jannik Sinner and American Madison Keys who left Melbourne Park the happiest, with the former taking his first of two major titles in 2025, while the latter claimed the first and still only Grand Slam championship of her career.
Many of the same characters – and some new ones, including a rookie Canadian – are back for this year’s edition of the hard-court major.
Here are the storylines you need to know as the tennis season gets off to a good start:
Sinner vs. Alcaraz, Part IV?
Let’s just pick up where we left off.
The undisputed two best players in men’s tennis shared the four Grand Slams last year, with Sinner winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon, while Alcaraz took the French and US Opens. Three of those finals were direct matchups, and Sinner earned the tiebreaker when he toppled the Spaniard in the ATP Tour Finals.
As we enter a new year and a new season, there’s little reason to think this full-fledged rivalry – we can ditch the “nascent” modifier in 2025 – will slow down any time soon.
If we want to make a choice, Alcaraz parted ways with his coach this season for unknown reasons, and Sinner was the shakier of the two at the last hard-court major, even before losing the final.
But actually, it would be a shock if either player were to fall before the championship match. Sinner’s won this tournament two years in a row, while Alcaraz answered all remaining hard court questions at Flushing Meadows.
Alcaraz, the current world number 1, will avoid Novak Djokovic on his side of the match. And he may have a little more motivation as he battles to become the youngest man ever to complete a career Grand Slam.
One final record is within the great Serbian’s reach: he is currently tied with Margaret Court for the most Grand Slam titles of all time at the age of 24.
It would be poetic to consider Court’s record as his own in her homeland.
But Djokovic’s fitness is a constant question. Now 38, Djokovic reached the semifinals in all four majors last year but failed to win a single set. He lost twice to Sinner, once to Alcaraz and retired mid-match in Melbourne against Alexander Zverev.
It seems the end of the last of the Big Three is near.
Yet Djokovic can clearly still compete at the highest level. He qualified for the ATP Tour Finals last year and is currently fourth in the ATP rankings, behind the only three men to reach a Grand Slam final last season.
Given his career, it remains incredibly difficult to discount Djokovic, who recently defeated Alcaraz in a major match in the 2024 Olympic final.
This is Djokovic’s dichotomy these days: He won his 101st career title in November in Athens. He has not played competitively since.
Mboko’s follow-up, and other Canadians
Victoria Mboko, the 2025 WTA Newcomer of the Year, rose all the way from No. 333 to her current ranking of 17th in a season highlighted by a home win at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers, while also delivering six other titles and a 22-match winning streak.
Mboko, from Burlington, Ontario, is off to a hot start again this year, having defeated Keys in the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International (which Keys won last year before taking the Australian major) on his way to a second-place finish.
Over the past decade, we’ve seen Canadian stars like Bianca Andreescu and Eugenie Bouchard burn bright but fast. Mboko also struggled with injuries last season, raising some concerns that she might take a similar path.
The 19-year-old will immediately test her stamina in a tough draw in Melbourne, where her path could include 14th-ranked Clara Tauson in the third round and No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the fourth round.
Mboko is joined in the women’s draw by compatriot Leylah Fernandez and qualifying player Marina Stakusic, who is making her Australian Open debut at the age of 21. Fernandez, who is ranked 22nd, will be looking to continue her year after winning the DC and Japan Opens after a strong finish, while losing to Sabalenka at the US Open.
On the men’s side, Felix Auger-Aliassime will look to build on a successful US Open in which he reached the semi-finals but at the expense of Sinner.
Ranked seventh, the Montreal native propelled himself to one of the best spells of his career in the aftermath of that major, winning a tournament in Brussels while dropping the final of the Paris Masters to Sinner and the semi-final of the ATP Tour Finals to Alcaraz.
Getting over that hump and beating those top dogs is – and has been – the next step in the Canadian’s career.
Denis Shapovalov, ranked 21st, faces a tall order, with Casper Ruud (No. 12) and Ben Shelton (No. 8) lurking early in his draw. Another Canadian breakout last season, Gabriel Diallo, drew the short straw with a first-round match against reigning finalist Zverev.
Qualifier Liam Draxl, 24, will make his Grand Slam debut in a first-round match against Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Belarusian was vying for her third consecutive Aussie Open title and was stunned by Keys in a three-set final last year.
But Sabalenka didn’t let it affect her as she recovered to reach the final of the French Open and the semi-finals of Wimbledon before winning the US Open for her fourth career major, all on hard courts.
Now she returns to Melbourne Park as the prohibitive favourite, especially as No 2 Iga Swiatek’s struggles look set to continue into the new year after the Pole dropped a pair of United Cup matches.
Sabalenka, who spent part of her offseason bringing back the “Battle of the Sexes” with Nick Kyrgios, would need to beat both Emma Raducanu and Mboko to get deep into the tournament.
Have Coco Gauff’s serving problems been resolved?
Not only did the third-ranked American lead the WTA in double faults last season; her 431 was 131 more than second place (Shapovalov led the ATP at 302).
Gauff’s struggles were highlighted last year in Montreal, where she committed 43 double faults in rounds 2, 3 and 4, ultimately falling to Mboko.
In August, she hired a biomechanics coach to overhaul her serve, which seemed to lead to immediate gains as she reached the semifinals of the China Open and won the Wuhan Open.
But in a United Cup defeat earlier this month, Gauff made 14 double faults. Longtime coach Rik Macci called the mistakes “all mental,” and Gauff rebounded with a 6-1, 6-1 victory in her next match.
The real test will come at the Australian Open, where Gauff has almost as good a chance as anyone to take home the title – which would be her third major – if she can keep her serve between the lines.
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