Melbourne, Australia – The first Grand Slam of the 2025 ATP and WTA Tour seasons are here as all sights turn to Melbourne for The Australian Open. Known as “The Happy Slam”, 29 players with ties to college tennis are featured in the singles main draw as they each look to start their tour season on a high note in Australia.
Continuing a trend of upward participation of former collegians at Grand Slams, the 29 players in the field is up from 27 players in 2024, 22 players in 2023, and 21 players in 2022. This growth has been a constant showcase of the development opportunities for top junior players as each year new recent college tennis alum continue to make waves on the WTA and ATP Tours.
In 2024, each Grand Slam featured at least 27 former and current collegians in the draws with Wimbledon featuring 30 players with college ties, the most of any Slam. In addition to the significant total number of participants, former collegians also made deep runs at many of these Grand Slams with Lulu Sun (Texas) and Emma Navarro (Virginia) reaching the Quarterfinals at Wimbledon and Navarro reaching the Semifinals at the US Open.
At the Australian Open, several players enter the tournament with high hopes of making deep runs and claiming their first Grand Slam title. In addition to Navarro, Ben Shelton (Florida), Danielle Collins (Florida, Virginia), and Diana Shnaider (NC State) all enter the tournament as Top 25 players in the WTA and ATP Rankings and will be hopeful to kick off their 2025 campaigns with a strong showing.
In addition to these four players who have cemented themselves on the ATP and WTA Tours, several players who have recently left college tennis are continuing their expedited assent up the professional rankings as Nishesh Basavareddy (Stanford), Jacob Fearnley (TCU), and Learner Tien (USC) all have made their way into the Main Draw. Basavareddy and Tien recently represented college tennis at the ATP NextGen Championships, while Fearnley has flown up the ATP Rankings in his first six months as a full-time pro, entering the Top 100 towards the end of the 2024 Tour season.
Six players qualified for the main draw and include Aziz Dougaz (Florida State), Tristan Boyer (Stanford), Hady Habib (Texas A&M), Dominik Keeper (Tulane), Learner Tien (USC), and Leolia Jeanjean (Lynn, Arkansas, Baylor). Each will aim to continue their strong play Down Under in the Main Draw to help them rake in valuable ranking points that will help them for the remainder of the year.
Play from Melbourne will begin Saturday, January 12th, and will continue until January 26th when a Grand Slam champion will be crowned. For a complete list of players with college ties competing in the Australian Open singles draws continue reading below.
