Everything you need to know about the 2025 Australian Open: Schedule, seeds, prize money | Sports News
After a short break in the tennis calendar, the world's stars descended on Australia as the first Grand Slam of the year got underway in Melbourne.
Among the next generation of tennis greats, including defending champion Jannik Sinner and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, all-time superstar Novak Djokovic has his sights set on a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title at his favorite hunting ground.
For the women, Aryna Sabalenka will look to continue her run of joy in Australia but will face Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Qinwen Zheng.
Here's everything you need to know about the Australian Open 2025:
When does the Australian Open 2025 main round start?
After six days of qualifying rounds, the tournament's main draw will begin on Sunday, January 12.
When are the Australian Open 2025 finals?
Men's singles: Sunday, January 26 at 7:30pm (08:30 GMT)
Women's Singles: Saturday, January 25 at 7:30pm (08:30 GMT)
Men's doubles: Saturday, January 25 (after women's singles final)
Mixed doubles: Saturday, January 25 (after the men's doubles final)
Women's doubles: Sunday, January 26 (after men's singles final)
Where is the Australian Open venue?
The tournament will be played on the green colored hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia.
The three largest courts are the Rod Laver Arena, which holds 15,000 people, the John Cairn Arena (10,500) and the Margaret Court Arena (7,500).
How are the players recruited in this tournament?
As in other Grand Slams, the top 32 players in the ATP and WTA rankings automatically enter the draw and are seeded to ensure they do not meet in the earlier rounds of the tournament.
Most of the remaining entrants enter the main round after playing qualifying rounds, while others – local players and previous top finishers who have fallen down the rankings – are given wild card entries from the tournament organizers.
Who are the defending Australian Open champions?
Men's singles: Jannik Sinner (Italy)
Women's singles: Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus)
Men's doubles: Rohan Bopanna (India) and Mathew Ebden (Australia)
Women's doubles: Hsieh Su-wei (Taiwan) and Elise Mertens (Belgium)
Combined doubles: Hsieh Su-wei (Taiwan) and Jan ZieliĆski (Poland)
Who are the top seeds?
Male songs (top 10):
- Jannik Sinner (Italy)
- Alexander Zverev (Germany)
- Carlos Alcaraz (Spain)
- Taylor Fritz (USA)
- Daniil Medvedev (Russia/no flag)
- Casper Ruud (Norway)
- Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
- Alex de Minaur (Australia)
- Andrey Rublev (Russia/no flag)
- Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria)
Female singles (top 10):
- Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus/no flag)
- Iga Swiatek (Poland)
- Coco Gauff (USA)
- Jasmine Paolini (Italy)
- Qinwen Zheng (China)
- Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan)
- Jessica Pegula (USA)
- Emma Navarro (USA)
- Daria Kasatkina (Russia/no flag)
- Danielle Collins (USA)
Who are the favorites to win the Australian Open 2025?
Men's songs:
Djokovic: Despite failing to win the Grand Slam in 2024 and reach a record 25th title, the 37-year-old won Olympic gold. The Serbian will never be written off in Australia, where he has enjoyed great success and will now be coached by rival Andy Murray.
Should he win in Melbourne, it will be his 100th title, becoming just the third man in the Open era to reach the milestone after Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103).
Sinner: The Italian won his first Grand Slam title in Australia last year and continued to establish himself as the best player in the world by winning eight titles in 2024, leading Italy to successfully defend the Davis Cup.
However, the 23-year-old's season was rocked by allegations of drug use, which he denies.
Sinner went through 2024 without losing in straight sets, becoming the first player since Federer in 2005 to do so, and will look to start 2025 on the same low.
Alcaraz: Just 21, the Spaniard already holds four Grand Slam titles since bursting onto the scene by winning the US Open in 2022, but is yet to reach the quarterfinals in Melbourne on his last three visits, hitting the last eight in 2024. Alexander Zverev.
Already the youngest man to claim majors on all three surfaces – clay, hard and grass – he will surpass compatriot Rafael Nadal as the youngest player to complete a career Grand Slam if he wins in Australia.
Alcaraz, undefeated in a Grand Slam final, ended the injury-hit 2024 as world No. 3 after winning four titles to take his career tally to 16.
Women's songs:
Here's a link: Claiming her third consecutive Australian Open crown, the Belarusian is the woman to beat after the best season of her career in 2024, having been named the WTA player of the year last month.
Sabalenka will become the first woman to win the Australian Open three years in a row since Martina Hingis in 1999 if she goes all the way, and she showed she is in the mood to escape the trophy at the season-opening Brisbane International, dropping just one set.
The victory continued the 26-year-old's excellent form from 2024 where he reached seven finals and won four tournaments.
Swiatek: The world number 2 is a five-time major champion but has yet to shine at Melbourne Park, progressing to the fourth round in 2022.
The Pole started his 2025 campaign with four straight wins but was competing after a one-month doping ban, due to testing positive for a banned substance he said came from contaminated bone.
Swiatek has played and won in all five of his Grand Slam finals, four of them at the French Open.
Gauff: The 20-year-old made a stunning comeback from a split with coach Brad Gilbert to win the WTA 1000 in Beijing and the WTA Tour Finals to end 2024.
The world number three looked in fine form once again as he inspired the US to win over Poland in the mixed United Cup, and his confidence is high heading into Melbourne.
The American will be looking to get her second Grand Slam title under her belt in Melbourne.
Queens will take the Melbourne title đ pic.twitter.com/XnmfdZlixT
â #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 8, 2025
What is the prize money?
The total prize money is $59.8m, a 12 percent increase from 2024.
The US Open will award a $2.16m prize for the singles champion and the winning men's and women's doubles teams will receive $502,000.
The classification of singles (male and female) is:
Champions: $2.16m
Runners-up: $1.17m
Semi-finalists: $0.68m
Quarterfinals: $412,242
Round of 16: $260,363
Third round: $179,759
Second round: $123,974
First round: $81,822
Where can you watch, follow and stream the Australian Open tennis Grand Slam?
Al Jazeera will provide live text and video of the men's and women's singles finals.
The official broadcasters for the Australian Open are:
- In Africa: beIN Sports and SuperSport.
- Europe: Eurosport, SRG SSR.
- Asia Pacific & Oceania: ESPN, Tennis Channel, beIN Sports, CCTV, iQIYI, GDTV, WOWOW, Nine, Stan Sport, Digicel, CJ ENM, TDM, ESPN International, SKY, Sportcast and K-Plus.
- India and the subcontinent: Sony Sports Network.
- Latin America & Caribbean: ESPN International.
- Middle East: beIN Sports.
- North America: ESPN, TSN, RDS and Tennis Channel.
- Central Asia: Sony Sports Network and Eurosport.
