On January 16, 2025, the Australian Open witnessed another upset as the men's singles No. 18 seed, Polish star Hubert Hurkacz, was eliminated after losing 0-3 to Serbian post-90s player Miomir Kecmanovic. Chinese players had a mixed performance with 3 wins and 4 losses. In the women's singles, Zhang Shuai, Wang Xiyu, and Wang Yafan were all knocked out, while in the men's doubles, Buryun Chaoke Te failed to advance. However, there were some successes for Chinese players as Zhang Zhizhen/Mahachi, Yuan Yue/Alexandrova, and Guo Hanyu/Panova progressed.
The No. 18 seed in the men's singles suffered an unexpected exit as Hurkacz, a former Masters champion, lost three consecutive sets (4-6, 4-6, 2-6) to Kecmanovic, resulting in a disappointing 0-3 defeat. Many fans had expected Hurkacz to win, but his performance fell short of expectations. Kecmanovic's outstanding on-court performance earned him a well-deserved victory.
In other matches, No. 4 seed American Taylor Fritz defeated Garin 6-2, 6-1, 6-0, No. 8 seed Australian Alex de Minaur beat Boyer 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, No. 16 seed Italian Lorenzo Musetti overcame Shapovalov 7-6(3), 7-6(6), 6-2, and No. 21 seed American Michael Mmoh eliminated Busta 6-3, 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4. No. 31 seed Argentine Facundo Bagnis advanced due to his opponent's withdrawal.
In the women's singles, following Zheng Qinwen's loss to Siegemund, three more Chinese players were eliminated. Zhang Shuai lost 0-2 to No. 24 seed Putintseva, Wang Yafan was defeated 0-2 by No. 9 seed Kasatkina, and Wang Xiyu suffered a close 1-2 loss to No. 8 seed Navarro, where she led 4-2 in the deciding set but lost four consecutive games at a critical moment. This means that the best result for Chinese singles players this year is reaching the round of 64.
No. 2 seed Polish Iga Swiatek dominated Slamkova 6-0, 6-2, No. 6 seed Kazakh Elena Rybakina easily won against Jovic 6-0, 6-3, No. 15 seed Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia defeated Andrejeva 6-2, 6-3, British Emma Raducanu overcame Anisimova 6-3, 7-5, and Tunisian Ons Jabeur beat Osorio 7-5, 6-3. The upcoming match between Swiatek and Raducanu is highly anticipated.
In the doubles events, Chinese players achieved a record of 3 wins and 1 loss. In the men's doubles, the returning semifinalists from last year, Zhang Zhizhen/Mahachi, won their first match 7-5, 6-4 against Andreev/Zarif. However, Buryun Chaoke Te/Baena lost 1-6, 2-6 to Gille/Zelenski. In the women's doubles, Guo Hanyu/Panova triumphed 6-4, 7-6(4) over Cabrera/Preston, and Yuan Yue/Alexandrova swept past Kawa/Zimmermann 6-2, 6-1.
After the singles players were all eliminated, Chinese fans turned their attention to the doubles events, especially since Zhang Shuai has previously won the Australian Open women's doubles title, and Zhang Zhizhen's men's doubles team is also very competitive. We look forward to seeing if they can achieve further success. Go for it!