World No1 Aryna Sabalenka is also in for a nasty shock as she tries to become the first woman since Martina Hingis to rack up an AO hat-trick in 26 years.
Sabalenka plays Sloane Stephens (last major champion) and a scheduled quarterfinal against No.5 Zheng Qinwen (replay of last year’s Australian Open final).
Then she might square up to Coco Gauff in an explosive semifinal, the same round where the two champs clashed here 12 months ago.
Sabalenka came into Brisbane as the winner, and Gauff was unbeaten at the United Cup to lead Team USA to the title and knockout world No 2 Iga Swiatek on the way.
Second-seed Swiatek is in the back of the AO 2025 draw with Sabalenka and Gauff, but has a tricky opener against doubles world No 1 Katerina Siniakova.
Gauff the game-changer?
Both Sabalenka and Swiatek had their top and bottom lines guaranteed in the draw as top two seeds. That made it all about Gauff, and what happened to her – and to the world’s No.1 and No.2 players.
Sabalenka, in the end, got the short end of the stick when Gauff popped her in her half as the young American is arguably the hottest man in the game at the moment.
Gauff has now dominated 18 of 20 games since the US Open, and won Beijing’s China Open, Riyadh’s WTA Finals and the United Cup.
She’s seven-win streaking but faces a stiff first round opponent in Sofia Kenin, AO 2020 winner who has made it through to this week’s Hobart quarterfinals. Last time they played, Kenin demolished Gauff in the first round of Wimbledon in 2023.
That’s a lot of play but if Gauff and Sabalenka go head-to-head in the semis, the American is 5-4 going into that game.
She’s also won her past two against Swiatek, straight sets.
Projected second-week match-ups
Other seed that got in Sabalenka’s way was Zheng, the good-for-business fifth seed that will be facing world No 1 in the quarterfinals, and he faces a qualifier.
Sabalenka is the leader – she’s never lost to Zheng in five sets – but the Chinese rising star is closing in, taking Sabalenka to three sets in October’s Wuhan final.
Zheng ended the year runner-up in the WTA Finals and in the top five, and a second run to the fore in Melbourne would be watched closely by her ever-expanding fan base.
Jasmine Paolini 4th seed has found herself bottom half of the draw and in the same quarter with 6th seed Elena Rybakina to be a lock for a new major quarter final. Paolini picked up their last, the same round at Roland Garros last year.
But it could be because big-hitting seeded entrants Danielle Collins, Madison Keys and Katie Boulter all have been eliminated in the same quarter.
Rybakina has an interesting opening match against Australian wildcard Emerson Jones, last year’s AO girls’ singles runner-up and junior world No1.
Dangerous floaters
Naomi Osaka is in the top 50 again following her run to last week’s Auckland final, but was an unseeded player in this year’s draw. And it just so happens, that two-times AO champion and world No.4 Caroline Garcia – again. Garcia cruised past Osaka in a quality first round last year.
The reward for the winner? Probably to take on 20th seed Karolina Muchova, who was top-10 in 2017 and has been Grand Slam big.
The woman who defeated an injured Osaka in the Auckland final, Clara Tauson, is one of the game’s big guns, and takes on 29th seed Linda Noskova, who beat Swiatek in the third round at AO 2024.
The winner of Tauson-Noskova is destined for the third round with Sabalenka.
Other results: Former world No 2 Ons Jabeur finished in the bottom quarter, playing her first game of the day against Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina.
A round against No.31 Maria Sakkari awaits, and if Jabeur continues to win the three-time major winner could take on No.8 Emma Navarro in the last 32.
The next two kids – Emma Raducanu and Amanda Anisimova – have been selected at the very bottom of the draw. Both may go to second round and the winner might meet Swiatek in the third.
Former US Open champion Raducanu got a stiff draw, 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, and Anisimova – a Hobart quarterfinalist – takes on Maria Lourdes Carle.
First-round blockbusters
It’s Sabalenka v Stephens, hands down, that biggest opening round match. But there’s also Gauff v Kenin.
The four are Grand Slam champions all together.
We also love 16th seed Jelena Ostapenko, winner of 2017 Roland Garros vs. former world No4 Belinda Bencic, back in action after having daughter Bella last April.
Ostapenko and Bencic are in the same deep quadrant as Osaka, Garcia and Muchova, all of whom they might challenge for a third-round place.
How did the Aussies fare?
Jones was tested by 2022 Wimbledon winner Rybakina in the first round. To Jones’s left in the back is Olivia Gadecki, who got former top-10 player Veronika Kudermetova.
But so is another wildcard Maya Joint, whose first round pick was seventh seed Jessica Pegula.
The former best Australians Daria Saville and Ajla Tomljanovic both pipped Anna Blinkova and Ashlyn Krueger respectively, and the emerging talent Talia Gibson takes on Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez.
Destanee Aiava was in the main draw soon after it was published and she won her final round qualifier to go along with her country women – her first-round opponent has not yet been determined.
Two more Aussies, Kimberly Birrell and Elena Micic, play in final-round qualifying later Thursday.