Aussies arrive at Melbourne Park with massive ambitions | 10 January, 2025 | All Information | Information and Options | Information and Occasions

Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin, Jordan Thompson and Nick Kyrgios spoke to the media on Friday because the 2025 Australian Open approaches.

Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 10 January 2025 | Sean A’Hearn

With three gamers shedding on the Australian Open for the primary time since 1982, Australian males’s tennis is in place.

Main the way in which because the top-ranked Aussie, Alex de Minaur appears to be like to proceed his development as a participant over these two days in Melbourne.

“Each time I come right here to the Australian Open, I really feel like I am a greater model of who I used to be final yr,” the eighth seed stated at Friday’s information day at AO 2025.

“I realized so much. I play with a number of confidence. I did all the fitting issues.”

Regardless of all of the stress and limelight for the 23-year-old, his preparation stays the identical.

“My job is to go on the court docket and do my greatest to win tennis matches, actually,” he stated.

“I nonetheless have the identical preparations. I’m very fortunate that I’ve an amazing crew round me that we are able to deal with in our little bubble.”

Again on the Australian Open for the primary time since 2022, Nick Kyrgios was excited concerning the depth of the boys’s sport in Australia.

“I imply, males’s tennis in Australia proper now’s extremely robust – we now have a number of gamers,” Kyrgios stated.

Whereas I like De Minaur – “I feel he is a risk at any Grand Slam and any match he performs” – Kyrgios believes he can nonetheless compete with the perfect after being out of motion for the perfect a part of 18 months.

“I all the time have a number of confidence in my capability. If I play my aggressive type, my unpredictability, I’ve an opportunity to face anybody,” he stated.

“That is the mentality you need to have in opposition to these individuals.”

Having been seeded for the primary time on the Australian Open, twenty fifth seed Alexei Popyrin is targeted on advancing to the third spherical, which he has but to do at Melbourne Park.

“We’re making an attempt to recover from that third-round bump,” he stated.

“We try to succeed in the second week for the primary time right here. That is the massive aim of the yr.”

After the top of the 2024 season, particularly on the finish of the yr by which he gained his first Masters 1000 title in Canada and beat Novak Djokovic within the US Open, Popyrin thanks the Paris Olympics for rekindling his newest enthusiasm.

“Every part clicked after the Olympics, beginning in Montreal,” he stated.

“It simply clicked, and all the things simply fell into place once we had been on the market on the court docket. One way or the other I knew what I used to be doing.”

Having picked up the seed once more for the primary time on the Australian Open, twenty seventh seed Jordan Thompson says his Grand Slam pedigree performs a giant function on all courts.

“The mentality of the court docket … I attempt to be aggressive,” he stated.

“I attempt to use all sides of the sport to get factors. I attempt to push ahead to the online as a lot as potential. I’ve to make use of my velocity and volleys to my benefit.”

Combining each doubles and singles has been an enormous success in 2024, Thompson believes that taking part in doubles has improved his singles sport.

“In singles, it looks like I’ve an ocean to enter, particularly after I come again,” he stated.

With 14 native males competing in the principle match, it is an thrilling time to be an Aussie tennis fan.