With Australian Open 2025 hype reaching fever pitch in Melbourne, it is easy to forget that some players were competing in other tournaments right up until the eve of the season’s first Grand Slam.
Yet four players will kick-start their AO 2025 campaigns fresh from triumphs elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand on Saturday.
MORE: AO 2025 men's and women's singles draws
In Adelaide, there were victories for Madison Keys and Felix Auger-Aliassime. McCartney Kessler triumphed in Hobart. Gael Monfils, meanwhile, became the oldest winner of an ATP Tour event when he claimed the title in Auckland.
But what are the standout insights for each of these under-the-radar champions ahead of their first-round ties?
Gael Monfils
Veteran campaigner Monfils made history in Auckland; aged 38, he now holds the record as the oldest winner of an ATP title, after downing Zizou Bergs 6-3 6-4.
Monfils hopes there are more trophies to come – he has won 13. The Frenchman reached at least one Tour-level final for 19 successive seasons between 2005 and 2023 – he is one of only five players to do so.
Players to reach at least one ATP Tour-level final in consecutive years
| Player | Length of Streak (Years) | Timespan |
| Roger Federer | 20 | 2000-2019 |
| Jimmy Connors | 19 | 1971-1989 |
| Rafael Nadal | 19 | 2004-2022 |
| Gael Monfils | 19 | 2005-2023 |
| Novak Djokovic | 19 | 2006-2024 (ongoing |
Monfils has never reached a Grand Slam final, with his best runs coming at the French Open 2008 and US Open 2016, when he reached the semifinals on both occasions.
Compatriot Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is Monfils’ first-round opponent at AO 2025.
READ: Six enduring favourites at AO 2025
This will mark only Perricard’s fifth main-draw appearance at a major. Monfils, on the other hand, has won more Grand Slam matches than any other French player (125).
Only Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (37) has claimed more match wins at the AO than Monfils (34).
McCartney Kessler
Kessler will face Zhang Shuai on Tuesday. It will be her fourth Grand Slam appearance – only once before, at last year’s AO, has she made the second round.
Among the players who finished 2024 inside the WTA’s top 70, only Moyuka Uchijima (five) and Renata Zarazua (six) registered fewer main-draw wins than Kessler’s tally of eight.
However, Kessler was one of just three players to secure a Tour-level title as a wildcard, along with Zheng Qinwen and Paula Badosa, so she has proved she has what it takes to pull off a surprise.
Felix Auger-Aliassime
Adelaide International champion Auger-Aliassime is seeded 29th at Melbourne Park, where he will face Jan-Lennard Struff in the first round.
The Canadian will be making his sixth main-draw appearance at the AO – his best run came in 2022 when he reached the quarterfinals, losing to Daniil Medvedev.
Despite losing six of his 10 first-round major matches, Auger-Aliassime has won four of his previous five opening-round AO ties, with his only defeat coming to Ernests Gulbis in 2020.
He must be wary, though. Among the seeds in the men’s singles, only four have registered more losses to unseeded opponents at Grand Slams than Auger-Aliassime (14) – Grigor Dimitrov (26), Ugo Humbert, Jordan Thompson (both 19) and Hubert Hurkacz (16).
Both Monfils and Auger-Aliassime must buck a remarkable trend if they are to pull off a shock AO triumph.
In the last 10 years, only Novak Djokovic at the French Open in 2021 has won a men’s singles Grand Slam trophy on the back of winning a title the week before.
In fact, since the start of 2015, there have been only 14 instances of a player reaching at least the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam immediately after winning an ATP title.
Madison Keys
Joining Auger-Aliassime in experiencing Adelaide success was Keys, who has won all of her last nine first-round AO matches, having lost her first such tie in 2012, against Zheng Jie.
In general, Keys tends to start strong at the majors. She has not lost an opening round match at a Grand Slam since going down to Sloane Stephens at Flushing Meadows in 2021.
Since the start of 2013, only Elina Svitolina (nine) has made the AO third round more times than Keys (eight, level with Serena Williams and Karolina Pliskova).
Indeed, she has her best major winning percentage at the AO (73% - 27-10) and is also the active American player with the most Grand Slam match wins (109).
Keys has won all her last 12 major ties against unseeded players, which is a bad omen for her first-round opponent Ann Li.