ATP Rankings Report – As of Jan. 6, 2025

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MELBOURNE, Australia – The Australan Open draw is Thursday. So on Wednesday, they announced the seedings.

Because the new Monday edition of the rankings – the first of 2025 – has their own Alex de Minaur move back to No. 8 – and being in the top eight seeds is better than being No. 9, the way the draw is tranched.

Andrey Rublev, who drops to No. 9, is ousted from the “top 8 club”. And Hubert Hurkacz ousts himself from the top 16, even of none of those players will want to meet him in the third round.

For the complete, updated ATP Tour rankings for Monday, click here.

WTA Rankings Report – As of Jan. 6, 2025

Jiri Lehecka (CZE): No. 28 ============> No. 24 (Lehecka’s second career title, in Brisbane, brings him to within one spot in the rankings from where he was exactly a year ago, when he was at a career high. Back woes sidelined him for parts of the season after that. But he’s back).

Gael Monfils (FRA): No. 55 ============> No. 52 (Monfils’s second round loss in Brisbane to Novak Djokovic was his 20th loss to the Serb in … 20 attempts. But at 38, he still just keeps on truckin’).

Alexandre Muller (FRA): No. 67 ============> No. 56 (Müller is one of that legion of French players ranked outside the top 30 or so who quietly go about their business all season long. And this week, at age 27, it all came together as he wins his first career ATP Tour title in Hong Kong – coming back from a set down in all his matches to do it. He was already at a career high before this. Now, he’s raised that bar even more).

Alexander Shevchenko (KAZ): No. 78 ============> No. 63 (The Russian-turned Kazakh reached his career high of No. 45 a little less than a year ago, but it hasn’t been great going since then. But with two wins and two losses at United Cup, he not only got great match prep for the Australian Open, he also improved his lot on the rankings side as Kazakhstan made the semifinals).

Kei Nishikori (JPN): No. 106 ============> No. 74 (Nishikori can’t use his PR at Roland Garros so he won’t have to worrk about that any more, with his great effort in Hong Kong. The final was his first in exactly five years, ince he won Brisbane back in 2019. He might have been helped by Denis Shapovalov’s illness in their first-round encounter last week. But he also might have beaten him anyway. Nishikori had … no ranking at all back in June of 2023, and he stood at No. 576 back in August. So it’s been a tremendous effort after so many injuries for him to get back to this space).

Jacob Fearnley (GBR): No. 99 ============> No. 86 (Fearnley Squeaked into the main in AO – and is now at a career high after making the Canberra semis. A year ago, he stood at No. 646).

Joao Fonseca (BRA): No. 145 ============> No. 113 (Fonseca wins the Challenger in Canberra, just a few weeks after closing out the “2024 season” with a win at the Next Gen finals. He’s at a career high at 18. Needless to say, he’s one to watch. He plays the very fun Federico Gomez of Argentina in the first round of qualifying at the AO).

Billy Harris (GBR): No. 125 ============> No. 114 (Pressed into service at United Cup after the withdrawal of Jack Draper, Harris made it work for him. At 29, he really kind of has dome out of nowhere with an achingly slow, but steady, rise in the rankings; He’s the No. 19 seed in qualifying in Melbourne this week, to face Yuta Shimizu).

Nishesh Basavareddy (USA): No. 138 ============> No. 133 (The 19-year-old’s first Australian tour is going swimmingly so far. He qualified at Brisbane, which puts him at another career high. He took Monfils to three sets in the first round before falling. He also qustralien tour going well – qualified in Brisbane. went three with Monfils new career high. He also qualified in Auckland over the weekend).

Martin Landaluce (ESP): No. 151 ============> No. 143 (Another young one to watch, Landaluce jumps into the top 150 for the first time after making the semifinals in Canberra. The 18-year-old plays young Belgian Raphael Collignon in the first round of AO qualifying. And we’re sad to report that he’s sporting a Melbourne mullet for the occasion).

Ethan Quinn (USA): No. 202 ============> No. 169 (Into the top 200 for the first time as he qualified in Canberra and made the final.. Quinn will play Calvin Hemery of France in the first round)

Reilly Opelka (USA): No. 293 ============> No. 171 (Opelka took a big leap in Brisbane, which he was playing with a protected ranking. Unfortunately – and not completely unexpectedly – he retired in the final against Jiri Lehecka. In the semis, Opelka was having wrist pain; the official reason for his retirement on Sunday was a back issue. But no one is going to want to see him in the first round of the Australian Open main draw – assuming he’s good to go).

Aslan Karatsev (RUS): No. 287============> No. 229 (Karatsev still travelled down in the moddie of nowhere – Nonthaburi, Thailand – even though he wasn’t close to making the AO qualies. And he wins the first Challenger there, with another to come this week. Karatsev’s career high of No. 14 came three years ago, shortly after the Australian Open. His bad luck came when he destroyed his knee during his first round match a year ago in Brisbane; he left the site in a wheechair and had surgery, although he tried to come back less than four months later. Karatsev was ranked No. 36 at the time. He didn’t win back-to-back main draw matches until the ATP 250 in Kazakhstan in October, where he qualified and reached the second round. At that point, he’d fallen out of the top 300, but he looks on the comeup again).

Moerani Bouzige (AUS): No. 517 ============> No. 410 (No, we’ve never heard of the fellow, either. He’s a 25-year-old who has never played a match at the ATP level save for a first-round loss in qualifying at the now-defunct Sydney event back in 2022. But last week, he made the final at the Noumea Challenger to leap to a career high).

Hubert Hurkacz (POL): No. 16 ============> No. 18 (Hurkacz was denied in a heartbreaker in the United Cup final on Sunday. But despite two wins in the United Cup, he stopp drops two spots).

Denis Shapovalov (CAN): No. 56 ============> No. 58 (Shapovalov lost in the first round of Hong Kong to eventual finalist Kei Nishikori, battling a virus – one that may well also have taken out young Jerry Shang later in the tournament. He was spared a first-round encounter in Adelaide with longtime pal Félix Auger-Aliassime by a withdrawal and a re-jigging of the draw).

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP): No. 61 ============> No. 69 (Davidovich Fokina gets veteran countryman Roberto Bautista Agut in the first round in Adelaide – always a tough out. The last time he won back-to-back matches was in Montreal last summer, where he beat Roman Safiullin and Daniil Medvedev before retiring in the third set against Arnaldi in the third round. It was only the second time he’d won two since Dubai in February).

Adrian Mannarino (FRA): No. 66 ============> No. 73 (Mannarino could have gotten straight into Adelaide but it was too late – he was already in Auckland, which is a trek. So he played the qualifying – and didn’t make it. And even with two lucky losers getting spots, he lost out in the random draw even as the No. 1 seed. So that’s how it’s going so far for the Frenchman).

Arthur Cazaux (FRA): No. 63 ============> No. 80 (Cazaux is in Australia with new coach Sam Sumyk, who has crossed over from the WTA. He lost in the first round in Brisbane even as he was defending the points from winning the Noumea Challenger a year ago. He also will be defending fourth-round points at the Australian Open).

Pavel Kotov (RUS): No. 86 ============> No. 99 (Kotov lost in the final round of qualifying in Hong Kong. And then he lost in the first round of qualifying in Adelaide. So he’s dropping from his breakthrough into the top 50 back in June, as he was defending quarterfinal points in Hong Kong).

Sebastian Ofner (AUT): No. 88 ============> No. 110 (Ofner pulled out of the whole Australian summer – he was the first to withdraw from the AO. And he’s now out of the top 100 because he failed to defend his points from a semifinal in Hong Kong last year. He has second round points from Auckland coming up as well, but not much from the AO as he lost a tough five-setter to Thanasi Kokkinakis in the first round a year ago –10-8 in the match tiebreak. He had surgery on his heel back in October.

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Dominik Koepfer (GER): No. 102 ============> No. 124 (Koepfer was so close to making the AO main draw – but not enough people withdrew in time so he ends up as the No. 1 seed. He lost in the first round in Canberra after winning it a year ago. Koepfer will play Ignacio Buse of Peru in the first round).

Emil Ruusuvuori (FIN): No. 95 ============> No. 131 (Ruusuvuori was the second after Ofner to pull out of Australian Open, as he’s been out since last summer and wisely decided to wait for six months to come back on a protected ranking. But he drops his points from making the final in Hong Kong a year ago, and so drops out of the top 100. He hasn’t played since Washington; he did make his way to Montreal the following week but never got on court).

Rafael Nadal (ESP): No. 153 ============> No. 176 (The points come off from his Nadal’s effort in Brisbane last year. Why he wouldn’t just remove his name from the rankings, which is allowed, rather than watch that number tumble is a personal decision).

Dominic Thiem (AUT): No. 524 ============> No. 577 (Same situation for Thiem, who called it a career in Vienna last fall).

Liam Broady (GBR): No. 546 ============> No. 787 (The 30-year-old finally broke into the top 100 in Sept. 2023. But it’s been tough sledding since. He missed three months in the spring but it’s been a slog since then. When he qualified and won a round in Hong Kong a year ago, he was at No. 108; those points drop, and so does his ranking. He’s playing a Challenger in Nottingham this week, and got through his first round qualifying match).