AO Hacks returns for Australian Open 2025, providing fans with player insights to maximise their day at the tennis.
A combined 479 weeks at world No.1, 161 titles, and 29 Grand Slam crowns over 22 years.
These are the combined achievements of six evergreen competitors who’ve had an enduring impact in Melbourne.
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Their performances have helped shape the tournament’s history, and all six are soon set to kick off another Australian Open campaign – in some cases two decades since their first.
Gael Monfils
Gael Monfils on Sunday became the oldest singles champion on tour since Australian Ken Rosewall in 1977, with his stunning triumph at the Auckland Classic.
He trailed 6-1 5-2 in his first round match but recovered and went on to win his first ATP title in 15 months – at the age of 38.
Monfils has wowed fans around the world for two decades with his athletic prowess and has always been a hot ticket at Melbourne Park.
He tasted junior success at the Australian Open, winning the boys’ singles crown in 2004.
The world No.52 will enter a 19th Australian Open campaign next week – the second-most among current players behind Novak Djokovic. The pair did battle at the Brisbane International on Thursday, with their combined age of 75 the highest for an ATP match in Australia this century.
If you book a ticket to see Monfils in action, expect box office.
Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka has thrived Melbourne Park for two decades.
In 2005, a year after Monfils’ junior triumph, Azarenka began a period of dominance at the Australian Open when she won the girls’ singles title without dropping a set at age 15.
Eight years later, she became the third female in the 21st century to successfully defend her Australian Open crown, winning the 2013 title after her AO 2012 victor y catapulted her to world No.1.
Azarenka has reached six AO quarterfinals, three semifinals, and two finals, cementing herself in the top echelon of tournament performers.
Now 35, Azarenka is entering the twilight of her career, but impressively maintains a top-25 ranking.
Stan Wawrinka
‘Stan the Man’ put himself on the map at the Australian Open.
Known for his lengthy encounters with Novak Djokovic, a four-hour battle in the 2014 quarterfinal – which Wawrinka won 9-7 in the fifth – avenged an epic loss to the Serbian a year earlier, and he went on to win his maiden Grand Slam title five days later.
The 39-year-old has been offered a main draw wildcard at AO 2025, yet despite a ranking outside the top 100, Wawrinka finished 2024 in scintillating fashion, reaching the semifinals at the Stockholm Open, where he defeated Andrey Rublev and Brandon Nakashima.
Expect him to carry this form into his 19th campaign at Melbourne Park.
Roberto Bautista Agut
Roberto Bautista Agut has been a five-set master at Melbourne Park.
Of his 35 AO matches, 12 have gone the distance – and he boasts an 8-4 record. Most notably, Bautista Agut won consecutive five-setters in 2019 against Andy Murray and John Millman.
Bautista Agut reached the last eight in that campaign – his first Grand Slam quarterfinal after several fourth-round appearances.
Turning 37 in April, the world No.51’s five-set track record means there could be plenty of intrigue around his matches at AO 2025.
He opens against Canada’s Denis Shapovalov.
Danielle Collins
Following her loss to Iga Swiatek in the second round of Australian Open 2024, Danielle Collins revealed that it would be her final season.
“I feel like I've had a pretty good career. There has certainly been ups and downs to it,” she said. “I have other things that I'd kind of like to accomplish in my life outside of tennis, and would like to be able to kind of, you know, be able to have the time to be able to do that.”
However, in October, Collins reassessed, stating she would be back for 2025.
We don’t know how long she’ll continue, but what is known is that the world No.11 has a 16-6 record at Melbourne Park – the best at any of the four Slams. She was an AO finalist in 2022, after reaching her first major semifinal in Melbourne in 2019.
On the back of another stellar season for the 31-year-old, Collins is primed for another deep run at the Australian Open.
Novak Djokovic
After winning Olympic gold in Paris last year, 37-year-old Novak Djokovic could say he had won every significant title he possibly could in tennis.
But the prospect of a record-setting 25th Grand Slam title, and 100th career trophy, at AO 2025 will certainly keep the motivational forces strong.
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Melbourne has been a goldmine for Djokovic. A 10-time winner of the Norman Brookes Trophy, the world No.7 is the most accomplished player in Australian Open history.
Catch him in action as he targets a record-equalling 11th singles title at the year’s first Grand Slam event – a campaign which could see him meet Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.