Novak Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz can each make more history with an Australian Open title, but they will first face each other in the quarterfinals.
The men’s singles draw is highlighted by the third seed Alcaraz and seventh seed Djokovic in a blockbuster matchup. They met last year in the Wimbledon final (won by Alcaraz) and Olympic final (won by Djokovic).
The top seed is Jannik Sinner, who won the Australian Open and U.S. Open last year. He can break his tie with Nicola Pietrangeli for the most Grand Slam singles titles for an Italian.
If Alcaraz, 21, wins the Australian Open this year or next, he will break Don Budge’s record as the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Women’s Draw
Djokovic, 37, is a 24-time Grand Slam singles champion, including 10 titles in Australia.
He is tied with Australian Margaret Court for the most Grand Slam singles titles in history and one shy of Court’s record 11 titles in Australia (seven of Court’s crowns came in the amateur era in the 1960s).
In 2024, Djokovic did not win any of the four Slams for the first time since 2017. He did win his first Olympic gold medal, though.
No. 4 seed Taylor Fritz, the U.S. Open runner-up, was upset by 38-year-old Gael Monfils in the third round. Fritz was the highest-seeded American man at a Slam since Andy Roddick was No. 3 at 2007 Wimbledon.
Four of the top 11 seeds (all between the ages of 26 and 28) lost in the first two rounds to players between the ages of 18 and 20: No. 5 Daniil Medvedev to American Learner Tien (19 years old; in five sets, four hours and 49 minutes and ending at 2:54 a.m.); No. 6 Casper Ruud to Czech Jakub Mensik (19); No. 9 Andrey Rublev to Brazil’s Joao Fonseca (18) and No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas to American Alex Michelsen (20).
