A month out before the year’s first Major begins in Melbourne, the first round of main draw wildcard entries have been announced as the 2025 Australian Open will feature a handful of home hopefuls and notable names – perhaps none bigger than 2014 champion and three-time Major titleholder Stan Wawrinka.
Tomljanovic also back in Australia
AS the run up to the 2025 Australian Open continues, Ajla Tomljanovic is among the home-based main draw entrants who’ve already been selected to feature across the two singles competitions. The 31-year-old, who won a WTA 125 Challenger event in Hong Kong early October, is a three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist but has never progressed beyond round two in Melbourne Park on nine main draw appearances.
She won another WTA 125 in Brazil at the back end of 2023 before starting her 2024 by featuring heavily in United Cup play against top opposition, before winning a pair of Australian Open matches – one singles, another in doubles with fellow wildcard Daria Saville – before suffering second-round defeats a day apart.
A four-month chunk of the season was later nixed rather unexpectedly after announcing she’d undergone surgery to remove non-cancerous tumours from her uterus, before alternating wins and losses across surfaces besides a run to the Rothesay Classic Final as a lucky loser in June, where Yulia Putintseva won the title.
Wawrinka by contrast, beat the recently-retired Rafael Nadal in four sets to clinch the 2014 title – his first of three Grand Slam trophies – though hasn’t surpassed two semifinal finishes (2015, 2017) dating back more than half-a-decade now.
Being unseeded doesn’t help, facing tougher challenges much sooner in the tournament at a time where his body isn’t what it once was.
Couple that with the troublesome injuries he’s endured, this could very well be his last Australian Open appearance. 40 in March, he hasn’t reached the second week at any Grand Slam since the quarterfinals of the year’s opener in 2020 – losing a four-set affair to Alexander Zverev – and continues to play a gradually decreasing schedule.
“I’m incredibly grateful to receive a wildcard into the Australian Open in 2025, Melbourne holds such a special place in my heart… one of the greatest milestones of my career,” he was quoted as saying.
He’ll be joined in the men’s singles draw by Australian trio Tristan Schoolkate, Li Tu and James McCabe while others will be announced soon, from other countries and Grand Slam-representatives from France, Great Britain and the US.
Picture source: Getty Images, quote hyperlinked
Mo and Sports 