de Minaur leads the charge at the Australian Open – preview

Australia has fifteen men competing in the singles at the 2024 Australian Open.

Two are guaranteed second round matches.

It is world no. 10, Alex de Minaur that leads the Aussie charge. He faces former world. no. 3 Milos Raonic. That should be a win for de Minaur unless the Canadian suddenly is serving like at his peak, but most likely good serving won’t help Raonic.

There are two all-Australian opening rounds. Alexei Popyrin facing Marc Polmans and Jordan Thompson facing Aleksander Vukic.

Popyrin and Thompson should advance, but Polmans and Vukic are capable of upsets

Max Purcell has an ideal matchup against Hungary’s Mate Valkusz, the world no. 214. The Hungarian does however had the advantage of having played three qualifying matches to reach this stage.

Valkusz is more accomplished on clay and has won a few Challenger and ITF level titles on that surface.

Thanasi Kokkinakis has shown he has the quality to match it with the very best players on tour, he does however also have off days. He famously won his hometown title a few years ago in Adelaide.

Kokkinakis faces world no. 37 Sebastian Ofner from Austria. The Austrian just last week reached the semis in Hong Kong and defeated some talented players along the way.

Hopefully the home crowd can lift Kokkinakis to victory. Ofner’s best result in 2023 came on clay at Roland Garros when as a qualifier he went all the way to the Round of 16 before losing in straight sets to Stefanos Tsitsipas.