{"id":419649,"date":"2026-01-17T18:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419649\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T18:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:57:07","slug":"berrettini-withdraws-from-ao-clash-with-de-minaur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419649\/","title":{"rendered":"Berrettini withdraws from AO clash with de Minaur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex de Minaur<\/a> has received a huge boost ahead of his Australian Open campaign with first-round opponent Matteo Berrettini<\/a> withdrawing and being replaced by lucky loser Mackenzie McDonald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former world No.6 Berrettini has ruled himself out after pulling the plug early from his appearance at an exhibition match at Melbourne Park due to illness.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

The former Wimbledon finalist had played just one fixture against Norway’s Nicolai Budkov Kjaer <\/a>at Red Bull Bassline on Friday night before retiring from his other matches at the promotional event.<\/p>\n

Berrettini’s withdrawal from the first Grand Slam of the year was announced on the Australian Open’s social media platforms the following day, without a clear indication of the state of the Italian’s health.<\/p>\n

“I’m really sorry to have to withdraw from the tournament,” a quote from Berrettini read.<\/p>\n

“I have always enjoyed being and playing here and feeling your incredible support.<\/p>\n

“Thank you to the tournament for their fantastic organisation and I hope to see all you again very soon.”<\/p>\n

Originally due to face Australia’s world No.6 de Minaur in the first round of the Open on Monday, Berrettini’s illness is the latest of fitness troubles after an injury-ravaged 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

Matteo Berrettini has withdrawn from the Australian Open.\u00a0Photo by Chris Putnam\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Knocked out in the second round at last year’s Australian Open, Berrettini was forced to retire from the Italian Open due to an oblique injury.<\/p>\n

Berrettini, world No.56, then ruled himself out of the French Open and the US Open following a flare-up of the same issue.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old has now missed seven grand slams in four years, but was able to return in time to play a pivotal role in Italy’s Davis Cup win in November.<\/p>\n

It is a massive boost for de Minaur, who had trailed Berrettini 3-2 in the head-to-head count.<\/p>\n

The Sydneysider will now face qualifying lucky loser McDonald.<\/p>\n

De Minaur has played McDonald twice and won both matches, last claiming victory in 2022 in Rotterdam.<\/p>\n

Berrettini had been the first opponent in a nightmare draw for de Minaur, who enters his home grand slam with his highest-ever seeding.<\/p>\n

Argentina’s world No.74 Mariano Navone or Serbia’s 96th-ranked Hamad Medjedovic<\/a> wait for de Minaur following the first round.<\/p>\n

American 29th seed Frances Tiafoe<\/a> is a likely opponent in round three, with potential shootouts against grand slam nemesis Alexander Bublik<\/a> in the last 16, before the top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex de Minaur has received a huge boost ahead of his Australian Open campaign with first-round opponent Matteo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-419649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}