The third day of the 2025 Australian Open on Wednesday was filled with drama as No. 7 Novak Djokovic survived a scare against qualifier Jaime Faria, and No. 3 Coco Gauff was pushed to the brink by Jodie Anna Burrage. While those top-ranked players advanced to the third round, several notable players suffered upset losses in the first major of the year.
Fifth-seeded Qinwen Zheng
This is arguably the biggest upset of the event thus far. Zheng was primed for a big 2025 after a stellar 2024 that saw her reach the finals of the Australian Open and the WTA Finals, besides capturing gold at the Paris Olympics.
Many earmarked the 22-year-old to win her first slam this year and begin her march toward a top-three ranking. Zheng fell to World No. 97 Laura Siegemund in a match where she failed to gain any rhythm. After losing a tiebreaker in the first set, she came unglued in the second when called for two 25-second time violations on her serve. The second penalty gave her opponent a service break, leaving Zheng flustered with the umpire.
After the loss, she blamed her lack of preparation for her early exit, noting that she skipped all warm-up events ahead of the Melbourne major due to an elbow injury.
“I carried the pain with me at this tournament,” Zheng said, via China Daily. “I felt it sometimes in a shot, and to contain it, I had to cut short my practice sessions. So yes, it affected my game.”
Sixth-seeded Casper Ruud
Rudd, a former three-time major finalist, lost to 19-year-old Jakub Mensik in four sets at Margaret Court Arena. While the final result was an upset on paper, World No. 48 Mensik — the youngest player in ATP’s top 50 — entered the match with a lot of momentum after reaching the finals of the Next Gen ATP Finals and the quarterfinals at the Brisbane International and ABC Classic.
As such, this match was expected to be a competitive affair despite the wide disparity in rankings. After they split the first two sets, Mensik was dominant the rest of the way, winning the third set in just 26 minutes and breezing to a 6-4 win in the fourth. He would finish the match with a remarkable 62 winners to just 35 unforced errors, including 22 aces.
The win marked Mensik’s fifth victory over a top-10-ranked player. As for Ruud, the upset meant an early exit from the Australian Open for a second consecutive year after a third-round loss last year.
22nd-seeded Sebastian Korda
The 24-year-old American carried form into Melbourne with a finals appearance in Adelaide earlier this month. Last year, he finished with an impressive 31-19 singles record, captured an ATP 500 title in Washington and rose to a career-high ranking of No. 15.
The stage was set for Korda to kick-start 2025 on a high note. Instead, he suffered a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 5-7 loss to Australian Aleksandar Vukic in the second round. The loss was particularly disappointing since Korda stormed back to win the second and third sets after tweaking his baseline stance.
As the game progressed, Vukic kept drawing Korda closer to the net, but the latter failed to respond adeptly. Vukic also capitalized on critical opportunities, winning 4/6 break points compared to Korda’s 4/14. Ultimately, the American made untimely, unforced errors in the fifth set, which proved too costly.
So, who’s on upset alert on Day 4? On the men’s side, fifth-seeded Daniil Medvedev could be shocked by 19-year-old American Learner Tien, who impressed in his first-round win. On the women’s side, eighth-seeded Emma Navarro will be in for a test against unseeded Chinese Wang Xiyu.
