The second day of the 2025 Australian Open main draw has concluded, and it was a day filled with upsets at Melbourne Park, with as many as six seeded players exiting the tournament. Additionally, two Grand Slam champions were unable to progress beyond the first round!
In the men's singles, the 10th seed Dimitrov and the 11th seed Tsitsipas both relinquished their spots in the draw; in the women's singles, two former Grand Slam champions, the 16th seed Ostapenko and the 21st seed Azarenka, also experienced "first-round exits." Also eliminated was Kenin, the former champion, who was defeated by Gauff with two 6-3 scores.
Australian Open Eliminated Seeds:
Men's Singles: [10] Dimitrov, [11] Tsitsipas, [23] Tabilo
Women's Singles: [16] Ostapenko, [21] Azarenka, [29] Noskova
Among the four eliminated seeds, Dimitrov is the most unfortunate. The 34-year-old Bulgarian veteran announced his withdrawal due to injury when trailing 5-7, 1-2. His opponent, Passano, can be considered the luckiest loser, as he stepped up after Fognini's withdrawal and received the gift of his opponent's withdrawal in the first round, truly standing there to collect a prize of 900,000 yuan!
The 11th seed Tsitsipas lost 5-7, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6 to the American prodigy Mikelson born in 2004, stopping in the first round of the Australian Open for the first time in seven years. In the past three Grand Slams, the Greek player has only achieved one victory. In fact, this result is both an upset and not so surprising! As a participant in the ATP Next Gen Finals, Mikelson is the pioneer who holds up the banner of "youth power" to explore the tennis territory of the post-05 generation.
On the women's side, the 2017 French Open champion and 16th seed Ostapenko, despite saving five match points in the opponent's serve-to-win game while trailing 4-5 in the second set, ultimately missed two set points in the tiebreak battle, losing 3-6, 6(6)-7 to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics women's singles champion Bencic! Ostapenko made a crazy 55 unforced errors, while Bencic was clear on the breakpoints and powerful, winning her first Grand Slam victory after revenge in style!
Two-time champion and 21st seed Azarenka lost 2-6, 6(2)-7 to Bronzetti, experiencing a first-round exit at the Australian Open for the first time in four years. For a champion player who was contemporary with Li Na, perhaps just standing on the court is already a victory!
In addition, Chinese player Zheng Qinwen also welcomed three pieces of good news!
Firstly, former Wimbledon champion Muchova withdrew from the same half of the draw as Zheng Qinwen due to injury, making the competition for the quarterfinal spot in that half simpler.
Secondly, looking at the draw, only the 27th seed Pavlyuchenkova and the 12th seed Schneider remain in the same section. Judging from the first-round matches, both players were in average form, with Schneider making 37 unforced errors and Pavlyuchenkova making even more with 42! With Zheng Qinwen's current form and technical ability, there is a script for a direct path to the quarterfinals!
Thirdly, Zheng Qinwen's second-round opponent has been determined, and it is Siegemund! The German veteran was originally inferior in strength to Zheng Qinwen, and today she fought for 3 hours and 16 minutes to pass, wanting to upset Zheng Qinwen, it is really impossible to find any advantages.
It is a pity that among the five Chinese players who have competed so far, only Zheng Qinwen has advanced! Last year, the Chinese women's singles first round had a record of 6 advancing to 2 (Zheng Qinwen, Wang Yafan), hoping that was just the lower limit!
On the 14th, Wang Xiyu, Zhang Zhizhen, Zhang Shuai, Wang Yafan, Wei Sijia, and Zheng Saisai will all compete, hoping for good news of advancement.