ATP Tour

Daniil’s opening dance! Medvedev races into Australian Open R2, De Minaur wins

The rejuvenation of Daniil Medvedev showed little sign of slowing down on Monday at the Australian Open.

The former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings eased past Jesper de Jong 7-5, 6-2, 7-6(2) to book his second-round spot at the hard-court major and improve to 6-0 for the 2026 season. Medvedev, who began his year by lifting the trophy at the Brisbane International presented by ANZ, converted seven of 13 break points he earned against De Jong, according to Infosys Stats.

DANIIL DELIVERS 📮

He moves past de Jong 7-5 6-2 7-6(2) ⚡️#AustralianOpen pic.twitter.com/m9YKNzBUPe

— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 19, 2026

Medvedev twice let slip a break lead in the opening set but still claimed it, and he carried that momentum into the second to take complete control in his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with World No. 73 De Jong. Medvedev then twice failed to serve out for the match in the third set, at 5-4 and 6-5, but he dominated the subsequent tie-break to seal his two-hour, 53-minute victory.

After a largely difficult 2025 season in which he won just one Grand Slam match (at the Australian Open), Medvedev finished the year well and lifted an ATP 250 title in Almaty. He will hope to continue his success under coaches Thomas Johansson and Rohan Goetzke when he takes on Quentin Halys in the second round in Melbourne. Frenchman Halys defeated Alejandro Tabilo 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(2) to advance.

“Today was not easy. First match, different tournament, a Grand Slam," said Medvedev in his on-court interview. "Last year, I lost almost [each major] in the first round, except here actually, so I’m happy to win in straight sets, even if some of them were up and down. The conditions felt slow, so we were both breaking each other’s serve a lot. The most important [thing] is to win and hopefully I can play better next round.”

Home favourite Alex de Minaur wasted little time joining Medvedev in the second round. The World No. 6 raced to a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 triumph against Mackenzie McDonald inside Rod Laver Arena to improve to 2-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

De Minaur reached the Australian Open quarter-finals for the first time in 2025. His next opponent at this year’s edition of his home major will be Hamad Medjedovic, who held off Mariano Navone for a 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-2 first-round win.

Tommy Paul, Andrey Rublev and Reilly Opelka were among the other players to advance early on Monday. The 19th-seeded Paul downed his fellow American Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, while 13th seed Rublev overcame Matteo Arnaldi 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. Opelka fired 23 aces in his 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory against #NextGenATP star Nicolai Budkov Kjaer.