The in-form Kimberly Birrell headlines the 25 Australian players who begin their Australian Open 2025 qualifying campaigns on Monday.
Melbourne, Australia, 5 January 2025 | Vivienne Christie
The quest to qualify for their home Grand Slam begins on Monday for 25 Australians as Australian Open 2025 gets under way at Melbourne Park on Monday.
Kimberly Birrell, who arrives in Melbourne after a quarterfinal run at the Brisbane International, leads the field of 14 women in the 128-player qualifying draw.
The Queenslander climbed to a career-high world No.99 following the career-best performance, however her ranking was outside the main-draw cut-off when entries closed in December.
“I’m really excited to play in Melbourne. I love the conditions down there. I’ve also played some great tennis,” said the 27-year-old Birrell at Pat Rafter Arena.
“I’m going to continue to just keep backing myself … the confidence that I’ve gained this week has been unreal. You just can’t replicate that in practice. You need to really prove on the match court that you can do it.
“Having really done that this week, I’m going to use that going into next week, and continue this momentum hopefully for the whole year.”
Birrell is joined in the draw by fellow top-200 players Maddison Inglis, Taylah Preston, Arina Rodionova and Destanee Aiava.
The 170th-ranked Preston, at age 19, is among three teenagers in the local qualifying contingent. She is joined by Melisa Ercan (also 19 and ranked No.343) and 17-year-old Alana Subasic, who is currently ranked outside the world’s top 1000.
Australian Open 2025 – Australians in women’s qualifying
| Lizette Cabrera | v | [3] Harriet Dart (GBR) |
| Taylah Preston | v | Mona Barthel (GER) |
| Jaime Fourliss | v | [5]Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP) |
| Maddison Inglis | v | Elsa Jacquemot (FRA) |
| Elena Micic | v | Elena Pridankina |
| Tina Smith | v | [7] Anna Schmiedlova (SVK) |
| [9] Kimberly Birrell | v | Sara Saito (JPN) |
| Priscilla Hon | v | Usue Maitane Arconada (USA) |
| Astra Sharma | v | Mai Hontama (JPN) |
| Destanee Aiva | v | [10] Ana Bogdan (ROU) |
| Melisa Ercan | v | Panna Udvardy (HUN) |
| Arina Rodionova | v | Aliona Falei |
| Petra Hule | v | [16] Petra Martic (CRO |
| Alana Subasic | v | Veronika Erjavec (SVO) |
> VIEW: Australian Open 2025 women’s qualifying draw
At world No.157, Alex Bolt is the highest-ranked player among 11 locals who will take their place in the Australian Open men’s qualifying draw.
The 31-year-old is targeting a seventh main-draw appearance in his home Grand Slam. Bolt’s best Melbourne Park performance came in 2019, when he upset Jack Sock and Gilles Simon to reach the third round.
Many eyes will also be on Cruz Hewitt, who at age 16 is the youngest member of the Australian men’s qualifying contingent.
Hayden Jones, at age 18, is another teenager eyeing to compete in the main draw in Melbourne for a first time.
Australian Open 2025 – Australians in men’s qualifying
| Blake Ellis | v | Antoine Escoffier (FRA) |
| Pavle Marinkov | v | [2] Mattia Belluci (ITA) |
| Matthew Bellavedova | v | Terence Atmane (FRA) |
| Cruz Hewitt | v | Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) |
| Jason Kubler | v | [6] Thiago Monteiro (BRA) |
| Marc Polmans | v | Valentin Royer (FRA) |
| Alex Bolt | v | [25] Mackenzie McDonald (USA) |
| Dane Sweeny | v | Pierre-Hugues Hubert (FRA) |
| Edward Winter | v | Carlos Taberner (ESP) |
| Hayden Jones | v | August Holmgren (DEN |
| Bernard Tomic | v | [21] Jozef Kovalik (SVK) |
> VIEW: Australian Open 2025 men’s qualifying draw
First-round matches, which commence at 10am at Melbourne Park on Monday, will be played over two days.
Visit AusOpen.com for the full schedule of play.
Australian Open tickets are available at Ticketmaster.
