Kyrgios and Bencic are among six men and six women competing at AO 2025 using protected rankings, setting the main-draw entry ranking cut-off for both fields at world No.98.

Kei Nishikori is one of those players; the former world No.4 enters with a protected ranking of 48th, marking his first Australian Open appearance since 2021.

The AO 2025 entry lists reveal the first 104 players directly accepted into both the men’s and women’s singles draws.

PRICELESS MOMENTS: Win great prizes with Mastercard

A further eight places are reserved for wildcard entries; the first of these were secured by Zhang Shuai and Kasidit Samrej, winners of the recent AO Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off. 

To complete the 128-player fields, the remaining 16 places will be filled by qualifiers.

That will be determined on 9 January – the final round of the qualifying tournament lighting up Melbourne Park during an action-packed AO Opening Week presented by Herald Sun.