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Australia’s world no. 6 Alex de Minuar was drawn to play Italy’s world no. 56 and former no. 6 Matteo Berrettini in the first round at the 2026 Australian Open.
If you happened to be watching the Red Bull BassLine the other night you would have seen Berrettini out on court against Norway’s Nicolai Budkov Kjaer.
The Italian started well before Budkov Kjaer got the better of Berrettini in a three set, 5 point tiebreaker.
It was later announced that Berrettini had withdrawn from the event. It was a bit of a mystery as to why.
But come Saturday there was a post on Instagram that announced that Berrittini had withdrawn from the tournament.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DTmrHKzgC1v
McKenzie McDonald is now to face de Minuar after the world no. 113. McKenzie had lost to Canada’s Liam Draxl in the final round of qualifying. McKenzie has a best result of reaching the fourth round in 2021.
Berrittini ended 2025 with some good matches at the Davis Cup finals and helped Italy secure the title. He would have been a tough first round opponent for de Minuar, not that McKenzie will be an easybeat.
In other lucky loser news Alexander Blockx is back in after he had retired from his third round qualifying match against Jason Kubler. Blockx faces qualifier Jaime Faria from Portugal.
Dino Prizmic enters the draw as a Lucky Loser against Australian wildcard James Duckworth.