Traveling half way around the world to play tennis against a neighbor or friend seems a bit extreme. While not always neighbors or friends, there were five different men’s singles matches where men from the same country played each other on Day 3 at the Australian Open. An experienced, but aging veteran knocked out a seed, a winning streak was snapped, and four favorites advanced to the second round of the year’s first Grand Slam.
Monfils
In the day’s headliner, 38-year-old Frenchman Gael Monfils defeated #30 seed Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard who is 17 years younger than him. In a five-set thriller, the cagey veteran narrowly advanced 7-6 6-3 6-7 6-7 6-4. Amazingly, Monfils never faced a break point in the match and was able to convert only two break points himself. Still, breaks at the right time and surviving grueling tiebreakers is sometimes enough to advance.
The Americans
There were two matches that featured Americans on both sides of the net. Fourth seeded Taylor Fritz easily cruised past Jenson Brooksby 6-2 6-0 6-3 in less than two hours. Fritz fired off 34 winners and converted an amazing six of seven break points to advance without much difficulty. Fritz will face qualifier Cristian Garin in his next match.
While also three sets, #21 seed Ben Shelton had a much more difficult time with rival Brandon Nakashima. Despite narrowly escaped in each set to advance 7-6 7-5 7-5. The match lasted almost a full hour more than the Fritz-Brooksby affair and featured only four breaks of serve. Shelton moves on to play Spanish veteran Pablo Carreno Busta in Round 2.
Italians and Serbs
In the only all-Italian match of the first round, #16 seed Lorenzo Musetti moved past Matteo Arnaldi 7-6 4-6 7-6 6-3. Musetti stopped a two match losing streak to his countryman in order to move into the second round.
The all-Serb match of the first round also featured the breaking of a two match losing streak. Miomir Kecmanovic needed the full five sets to defeat Dusan Lajovic for the first time at the ATP Tour level. The pair alternated winning sets with Kecmanovic finally outlasting his fellow Serb 7-5 3-6 6-3 3-6 6-3. In a tight match that lasted well over 3 hours and included 330 total points, Kecmanovic won only 4 more points than Lajovic to nab the victory.
After traveling a great distance to play a familiar foe from the same country, five men advanced to the second round of the 2025 Australian Open. Five others are just going home.
Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
