What's New, What's Not, What's Next? (Jan. 13)

This week, we had the last round of tournaments before the Australian Open, with titles for McCartney Kessler in Hobart, Gaël Monfils in Auckland, and Felix Auger-Aliassime and Madison Keys in Adelaide. Here's a round-up of the highlights from the week.

What's new?

The 2025 Australian Open is underway

We've had one day of action already at the time of writing, with no major upsets or stories so far. Alexander Zverev, Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Zheng Qinwen, Tomas Machac, Paula Badosa, Donna Vekic, Jiří Lehečka, Ugo Humbert and Arthur Fils all moved safely into the second round. Casper Ruud made slightly harder work of his first round match against Jaume Munar, which he eventually won in five.

Global-Cityzen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The fun really gets started on Monday, with the likes of Gauff, Świątek, Sinner and Djokovic getting their tournaments underway.

There's a new name to look out for on the ATP Tour

Nishesh Basavareddy has started 2025 in a very eye-catching way, and looks like one to watch for the year ahead and beyond. The U.S. teenager went through qualifying to earn a spot in both Brisbane (where he made his ATP Tour main draw debut) and Auckland before eventually losing to Gaël Monfils in each event.

Basavareddy lost in three sets to Monfils in Brisbane, but went on an even more impressive run in Auckland this week, beating seeds Alejandro Tabilo and Alex Michelsen en route to his first ATP semi-final. He actually played the better tennis for much of that semi-final, with 38 year old Monfils looking physically exhausted for much of the match. It was the veteran's experience that made the difference, with Monfils wisely conserving energy in lost games and eventually stealing the first set in a tie-break before Basavareddy's level dropped later in the second. But Monfils was quick to acknowledge the bright future that Basavareddy has ahead of him in his post-match interview, having come through two real battles with the teenager in the space of a week.

Basavareddy's star is rising fast. The 19 year old went on a tear at Challenger Tour-level in the back half of last year, reaching 6 finals and winning 2 titles along the way to a 41-13 record for the year. He also made an appearance at the Next Gen ATP Finals, his first ATP event, where he beat Jerry Shang and lost to Alex Michelsen and Luca Van Assche in the round robin. But his performances and results this week show that he's already capable of competing at the main tour level, and he's now on the cusp of breaking the top 100 in the ATP rankings.

Basavareddy will make his Grand Slam debut in Melbourne, where he's received a wildcard and will play ... [checks notes] ... 10-time champion Novak Djokovic in the first round.

Félix Auger-Aliassime has won an outdoor tournament

Auger-Aliassime's win in Adelaide was his sixth title overall, but the first at an outdoor event. In truth, it wasn't the most dazzling of weeks for the Canadian, with some matches feeling like a bit of a mud-wrestle (including a bizarrely low quality semi-final against Tommy Paul).

What he did do really well this week was play well in the big points. For a player who lost his first 8 ATP finals, that kind of grit and capacity to perform under pressure is a real accomplishment. Since that rough start, Auger-Aliassime has now won 6 of his last 8 finals, a marker of how far he's come mentally. As a player who still seems to need confidence to find his best tennis, this week could be just the thing to set him up for a strong year ahead.

His next test is a tricky-looking opening match in Melbourne against Jan Lennard-Struff.

What else?

It's worth highlighting the two WTA champions of the week, who both impressed for different reasons.

For Madison Keys, her final against top seed Jessica Peluga took on an awkward air that was reminiscent of Naomi Osaki's Auckland final the week before. Keys overpowered a sub-par Pegula to win the first set comfortably, but felt an injury early in the second set that led to her going for an off-court medical timeout with the trainer at 0-3 in the second. From the look on Keys' face and the way her movement was clearly hampered, it seemed like we might have a repeat of Osaka's fate the week before, with Keys retiring from a winning position. Thankfully, it turned out to be something that she could play through after treatment, and she shared in a post-match interview that she was mostly struggling with the mental shock and frustration of the injury scare. Pegula was nowhere near her best and her performance was unusually error-strewn, but it was still a very impressive win from Keys to mentally regroup and storm the third set 6-1 for her ninth WTA title before the age of 30.

Tatiana, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

McCartney Kessler had a smoother but no less impressive run in Hobart, where she dropped only two sets on her way to her the title. Kessler has flown a little bit under the radar to become a two-time WTA champion now, having won in Cleveland last summer as well. Her ball striking was phenomenal this week, as evidenced in a bruising 6-0 third set win against Elise Mertens in the final. The title means that Kessler has entered the top 50 in the WTA rankings for the first time, and it will be interesting to see what the ceiling is for the 25 year old.

What's not?

Gaël Monfils won an ATP title (at 38 years old)

Gaël Monfils being relevant in tennis is very much not new - he won his first tour-level title 20 years ago in 2005. He did, however, just become the oldest player to win an ATP Tour singles title in almost 50 years.

What stands out is not just the achievement of winning at that age, but the way he did it this week. Monfils came from 1-6 2-5 down in his first round match against Pedro Martínez, and played some very physical matches. During the semi-final against Basavareddy, I wasn't even sure he would finish the match given how he was doubled over after almost every point in the first set.

Hameltion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It probably helped that his opponent was a first-time finalist in Zizou Bergs, who must also have been pretty drained after playing three sets in each round. But take nothing away from what a feat of fitness and staying power it is that Monfils is still ending weeks as the last man standing.

Kei Nishikori is doing Kei Nishikori things

Watching the Australian Open live is tricky for those of us in an Atlantic time zone, and we have to fit our live watching choices around our sleep. So when I watched the first two sets of Nishikori's first round match against Thiago Monteiro, I felt pretty confident I could call it a night after the Brazilian took the second set for a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately, I overlooked the fact that Kei Nishikori has one of the best five-set records of all time, so of course I woke up to find out that the 35 year old had fought back to win in five.

What's next?

There's two weeks of Australian Open tennis to enjoy!