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Dutchman de Jong making major debut
January 13, 2024
Arthur Cazaux won the Open SIFA Nouvelle-Calédonie in the first week of 2024.Marine Reveilhac
Arthur Cazaux won the Open SIFA Nouvelle-Calédonie in the first week of 2024.
By ATP Staff
ATPTour.com lists five ATP Challenger Tour stars to keep your eyes on at the Australian Open.

Arthur Cazaux
The Frenchman started the year the best way possible, claiming an ATP Challenger Tour 100 title in Noumea. At No. 108 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Cazaux has earned three Challenger titles in his young career and now looks for his first major main-draw win in his fourth attempt. Cazaux is making his Australian Open debut.

This year is not the first time the 21-year-old has started a season on a hot streak. In 2023, Cazaux embarked on a 13-match winning streak at the Challenger level with a title run in Thailand to open the season. Now, the wild card Cazaux is aiming to maintain his early-season form to capture the biggest win of his career. The Montpellier native opens against World No. 33 Laslo Djere.

Jakub Mensik
The Czech teen Mensik was the youngest ATP Challenger Tour champion of 2023 (17 years, eight months) when he triumphed at his home tournament, the Prague Challenger. Mensik joined elite company as one of four 17-year-old Challenger titlists in the past five years: Jannik Sinner (2019), Carlos Alcaraz (2020), Shang Juncheng (2022).

The Prostejov native, who reached the third round of the US Open, advanced through qualifying this past week and will make his Australian Open debut against Denis Shapovalov. Mensik has tasted junior success in Melbourne, finishing runner-up at the 2022 Australian Open boys’ singles event.

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Aleksandar Kovacevic
The American was one of five players to collect four or more Challenger titles last season, lifting the trophy in Cleveland, Waco, Shenzhen and Temuco. The former University of Illinois star has built upon his momentum by qualifying for the season’s first major and in the opening round will meet ASB Classic champion Alejandro Tabilo, who also captured four Challenger titles in 2023. World No. 103 Kovacevic could leave Melbourne with a double prize: a maiden major main-draw victory and a Top 100 debut.

Shintaro Mochizuki
Exactly one year ago, Japan’s Mochizuki was the No. 323 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. But a standout season in which he earned his first ATP Challenger Tour title in Barletta and reached the semi-finals of the ATP 250 event in Tokyo has brought the 20-year-old inside the Top 150. The 2019 Wimbledon boys' singles champion Mochizuki, who is in the main draw as a lucky loser, will start against Czech Tomas Machac.

Jesper de Jong
The 23-year-old Dutchman boasted a 28-13 match record on the ATP Challenger Tour last season and won the 100 event in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland. Making his major debut, de Jong advanced through Australian Open qualifying, in which he survived Argentine Camilo Ugo Carabelli in the final round after three hours, 18 minutes. De Jong will face another Argentine in the opening round, World No. 72 Pedro Cachin.

Novak Djokovic can joke about the yellowish streak of dyed blond hair, given the passing of time since his Rod Laver Arena prime-time debut.

A 10-time champion at Melbourne Park in the years following that one-sided 2005 debut against eventual champion Marat Safin, the Serbian can count himself fortunate subsequent highlight reels tend to bury too much footage of his impromptu hair style from that maiden outing.

MORE: Day 1 schedule of play

This year, the top seed opens his Australian Open title defence for the first time on a Sunday night intent on limiting any highlights to his performance rather than his hair when he meets the latest Balkan teenage prospect, Dino Prizmic.

MORE: AO 2024 men's singles draw

Fellow reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka also begins her bid for back-to-back Melbourne Park silverware against an 18-year-old qualifier on Sunday night when she takes on German Ella Seidel.

MORE: AO 2024 women's singles draw

While Djokovic was wary of his match-tested opponent, he was clear where his greatest threats rested.


Djokovic's focus has been on fitness as much as form in the lead-in to AO 24
“Myself always first, and then of course all the other best players in the world,” he smiled.

MORE: Novak by the numbers – what Djokovic is chasing at AO 24

“Any player is here with, I'm sure, intention to achieve the dream of winning a Grand Slam. Some players are obviously more expected to go further than some others.”

Like Djokovic in 2005, Croatian Prizmic has won through qualifying to book his Grand Slam debut under lights on Rod Laver Arena.

MORE: Counting down 10 can't-miss first-round clashes

If the mismatch on paper seemed substantial between the major champion and the teenager qualifier in 2005, it was even greater this time around, and any concerns about the top seed’s wrist injury sustained before a defeat to Alex de Minaur in Perth were allayed.

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“My wrist is good. I had time from the last match against De Minaur in the United Cup to my first match here to recover,” he said. “I've been training well. Practice sessions pain-free so far. It's all looking good.”

Djokovic can secure sole ownership for most major singles titles ahead of Margaret Court’s two dozen should he prevail for an 11th time at the end of the Melbourne Park fortnight, while the age gap of 18 years and 75 days to his first-round opponent is the greatest in an Australian Open men’s showdown since Ken Rosewall downed qualifier Cary Stansbury at AO 1978.

"My wrist is good … I've been training well. Practice sessions pain-free so far. It's all looking good."
Novak Djokovic ahead of AO 2024
Born in Split, the same city as Djokovic’s coach Goran Ivanisevic, Prizmic cites the world No.1 as his idol. On the cusp of the top 150, he is already making waves.

Last year, Prizmic became the first player to claim the Roland Garros boys’ singles title and a Challenger trophy in the same season since AO 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka in 2003.

“For me every player is really good, but Djokovic has his mental strength. But … every player is good,” said Prizmic, who was only born seven months after Djokovic fell to Safin at AO 2005.

“The stadium will be full. I just want to play my best tennis and I don't have anything to lose.”

Second seed Sabalenka finally held her nerve and delivered on mounting expectations last year in an epic tussle with reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina for her maiden Grand Slam title.


Rounding out the first night session of AO 2024 on Sunday, the 25-year-old faces a relatively unknown quantity in Germany’s top-ranked teenager Seidel, a talent who has already has her name to a brand ambassadorship with luxury label Hugo Boss.

After a season in which she rose to and ultimately relinquished the No.1 ranking, Sabalenka did not concede more than six games through each of her first four matches of the season in Brisbane leading in, before Rybakina turned the tables on their previous Australian showdown in the final.

MORE: "Super happy" Sabalenka embracing return to Melbourne

The result left room and sufficient time to iron out any problems before her Melbourne return.

“I feel really great. I had an incredible season last year, improved a lot as a player and as a person,” Sabalenka said. “I did really a great pre-season, we worked a lot. I felt like we improved a lot … Before the finals, I think I played really great tennis. Everything worked on the pre-season. Everything worked on match.”

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While yet to test himself in any official lead-up competition, men’s fourth seed Jannik Sinner will hit the ground running in Sunday's opening match at Rod Laver Arena.

After splitting meetings with Djokovic at the ATP Finals, Sinner narrowly denied the Serbian again en route to guiding Italy to its first Davis Cup triumph since 1976 in November.

How much this has emboldened the 22-year-old on the shift to the season’s opening major remains to be seen, but he starts refreshed and hungry against world No.59 Botic van de Zandschulp, whom he has never faced.

MORE: Sinner powered by season's success ... and carrots

“I have still the confidence inside me, for sure,” Sinner said. “In the other way, every season is different. Every tournament is different. Honestly, I missed being a little bit out of competition in the last one and a half, two months or so.”

Following Sinner, eighth seed Maria Sakkari begins her campaign at what she considers the closest to a home Slam, thanks to Melbourne’s boisterous Greek supporter base.

The two-time major semifinalist faces 29-year-old world No.56 Nao Hibino for the second time, having beaten the Japanese player in the second round at Melbourne Park three years ago.



Comeback mum Caroline Wozniacki steps out at MCA on Sunday night when she faces last year’s semifinalist, 20th seed Magda Linette.

MORE: Wozniacki returns, ready to challenge the young guard

In only her second major back since her AO 2020 retirement, the Dane will carry a 2-0 record into the clash, but the pair haven’t crossed paths in six years.