The Australian Open draw is right around the corner! The opening week of the season saw one notable change on the ATP ranking list, and it happened behind Novak Djokovic. The 10-time Australian Open winner will start the tournament ranked 7th.
Instead of Andrey Rublev, the home favorite Alex de Minaur will be the 8th seed in Melbourne. Leading the quarter-final section should make his path easier. At the beginning of the season, only 15 ATP points separated Rublev and de Minaur.
They both dropped points from last year, but the Aussie did enough to pass his opponent ahead of the Australian Open draw. Thus, de Minaur avoided the rivals from the top ahead of the quarter-final stage, which always helps.
Alex will also face one of the lowest seeds in the fourth round instead of battling against those placed in the third seeding section. However, that does not necessarily mean a more favorable draw. We will have to wait for the draw to see who has a better path toward the closing rounds.
One thing is clear. De Minaur will avoid Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alacaraz and Novak Djokovic ahead of the quarter-final. Alex reached the Australian Open fourth round for three straight years. However, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Andrey Rublev were too strong.
Rublev and de Minaur embraced a cracker in Melbourne a year ago. The home favorite prevailed in sets two and three, building the advantage but fading from the court in the closing stages. Andrey dropped three games in sets four and five and prevailed after over four hours.
They could meet in the fourth round again in a couple of weeks. The Russian started the season in Hong Kong, defending last year’s title. However, Andrey experienced a setback against Fabian Marozsan, suffering a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 defeat and losing crucial ATP points.
On the other hand, de Minaur failed to repeat last year’s United Cup result, with Australia failing to reach the quarter-final. However, he beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Billy Harris, collecting enough ATP points to pass Rublev and become world no. 8.
