Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin and Jordan Thompson are seeded at Australian Open 2025, recalling a famous trio from Wimbledon in 2000.

Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 8 January 2025 | Jackson Mansell

Regardless of what happens at Australian Open 2025, Australia has already achieved a 25-year first.

This Australian Open will be the first time three Australian men are seeded at a Grand Slam since Wimbledon 2000, when it was Lleyton Hewitt, Mark Philippoussis and Pat Rafter assigned seeds at that tournament.

A repeat of this feat – achieved by Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin and Jordan Thompson at at AO 2025 – symbolises the beginning of another strong era for Australian men’s tennis, after a banner 2024 season.

READ MORE: Australian Open 2025 seeds

In July, 10 Aussies featured inside the ATP top 100 for the first time in 43 years, and under Hewitt’s tutelage, Australia reached the Davis Cup semifinals for a third straight year.

This current contingent could potentially present Australia’s best chance to have a male Grand Slam champion since Hewitt in 2002.

De Minaur, seeded eighth at Australian Open 2025, has been nearing a major breakthrough. In the form of his career over the last 12 months, the 25-year-old reached three out of a possible four Grand Slam quarterfinals.

He also became the first Australian since Hewitt in 2004 to qualify for the ATP Finals in singles.

Injury plagued his season following Wimbledon, but De Minaur showed promising signs of an imminent Slam breakthrough.

For the past three years, De Minaur has fallen in the fourth round at Melbourne Park – the only Grand Slam venue at which he is yet to reach the quarterfinals.

His most recent AO encounter was arguably his most gut-wrenching, losing to Andrey Rublev – the man he recently overtook in the ATP rankings – in five sets.

Alexei Popyrin and Jordan Thompson have obtained seeds at their home Grand Slam for the first time, given their rankings of No.25 and No.27 respectively.

Popyrin skyrocketed up the rankings after winning the Montreal Masters. The 25-year-old climbed 32 spots following his first Masters 1000 title, where he defeated five top-20 players along the way.

At the US Open, Popyrin made his first fourth-round appearance, which included the biggest win of his career over defending champion Novak Djokovic. The New South Welshman rounded out his 2024 campaign with a win over world No.5 Daniil Medvedev at the Paris Masters.

Thompson is coming off a career-best singles season during which he built a 9-8 record against top-20 opponents, including wins over Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz and Casper Ruud – defeating the latter three times.

The 30-year-old also made his maiden Masters quarterfinal in Paris in November and claimed his first ATP singles crown at the Los Cabos Open in February.

Not since Australian Open 1982 – 43 years ago – have so many Australian men been seeded at their home Slam. Back then, when the tournament was played at Kooyong, Aussies Mark Edmonson, John Alexander, Phil Dent and Paul McNamee were seeded.