{"id":244111,"date":"2026-01-18T03:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/244111\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T03:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:25:07","slug":"easier-start-for-alex-de-minaur-as-matteo-berrettini-withdraws-from-australian-open-alex-de-minaur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/244111\/","title":{"rendered":"Easier start for Alex de Minaur as Matteo Berrettini withdraws from Australian Open | Alex de Minaur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex de Minaur has received an early boost to his Australian Open<\/a> chances after the withdrawal of his tough first-round opponent, former world No 6 Matteo Berrettini.<\/p>\n

Berrettini announced he had suffered a recurrence of the abdomen problems which had plagued his 2025 season, forcing him to miss the French and US opens.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately I\u2019ve felt discomfort in my obliques once again and I won\u2019t be ready to perform at my best level for five sets,\u201d the Italian posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hurts because playing in Australia is always special and after four weeks of intense training I was excited and ready to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping and feeling that I won\u2019t be out from the tennis courts for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news robs the tournament of its most compelling first-round match.<\/p>\n

Berrettini had appeared a formidable first opponent for De Minaur, after the former Wimbledon finalist defeated world No 27 Learner Tien in straight sets at the Kooyong Classic last week.<\/p>\n

The Australian will now meet Mackenzie McDonald, the American who was beaten in qualifying but now receives a last-minute call-up as a \u201clucky loser\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mackenzie McDonald joins the Australian Open main draw after Matteo Berrettini pulled out. Photograph: Shi Tang\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old is a respected tour veteran with a career-high ranking of 37, whose best result at Melbourne Park was reaching the fourth round in 2021.<\/p>\n

De Minaur, the highest local men\u2019s seed in two decades, will face McDonald on Rod Laver Arena on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The main draw gets under way on Sunday with four Australians in action.<\/p>\n

Adam Walton has been given one of tennis\u2019 toughest tasks in his match against men\u2019s top seed, Carlos Alcaraz, in the evening session on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n

Qualifier Jason Kubler meets the American 29th seed, Frances Tiafoe, on John Cain Arena no earlier than 5pm.<\/p>\n

Wildcard Talia Gibson is up first on Kia Arena against Anna Blinkova, followed by Tristan Schoolkate and his opponent, the 32nd seed, Corentin Moutet.<\/p>\n

The tournament\u2019s Opening Week, featuring qualifying matches, concerts and the One Point Slam, attracted 217,999 attendees. It almost doubled the previous record, 116,528, set last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex de Minaur has received an early boost to his Australian Open chances after the withdrawal of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-244111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}