Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson pick the top ATP seed who is most in danger of an early exit at the Australian Open

Grand Slam tennis never fails to spring a surprise or two in the tournament’s early rounds.

The Australian Open is now just a day away, as the best players on the ATP Tour look ahead to their first-round matchups.

Ten-time champion Novak Djokovic will play Nishesh Basavareddy, an American Wildcard currently ranked outside the world’s top 100.

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2024 Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner will play Chilean world number 34 Nicolas Jarry in the first round, a tough tie for the Italian.

World number three Carlos Alcaraz will face a tricky test against Alexander Shevchenko, who helped Kazakhstan reach the semi-finals of this year’s United Cup.

Many fans have predicted Andrey Rublev to lose to qualifier Joao Fonseca in the first round, with the Brazilian currently riding a 13-match winning streak, spanning over 60 days.

Several players will be hoping to avoid an early exit, but one ATP star in particular is being tipped to struggle at this year’s Australian Open.

Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson predict an early exit for Casper Ruud at the 2025 Australian Open

Speaking on the Nothing Major podcast, Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson discussed the seeded player they think is most likely to fall to an early defeat at this year’s tournament.

“Casper [Ruud],” said Querrey.

“The courts are fast, sometimes they do not resurface the Aussie courts.

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“He just doesn’t like the fast courts.

“I hope he proves us all wrong and makes it to the quarters, semis, finals, or wins it.”

Casper Ruud is seeded sixth for this year’s Australian Open and is set to face off against Spain’s Jaume Munar in the opening round.

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Johnson agreed with Querrey, also suggesting that the courts could hurt the Norwegian.

“It is also harder because he is going to be on the outside courts,” he said.

“We know Laver and Cain are slower, so he is going to be on the outside courts which are pretty fast.”

Ruud’s best career-result in Australia came at the 2021 tournament, when he retired injured during his fourth round match against Rublev.

The 25-year-old hasn’t returned to the fourth round since, as he continues to struggle at the Major tournament, where he holds a fairly underwhelming 7-5 record.

How badly did Casper Ruud struggle on hard-courts in 2024?

Querrey and Johnson aren’t predicting big things for Ruud in Melbourne, but how has he performed on hard-courts recently?

The Norwegian reached the US Open final on hard courts, back in 2022, but struggled last year, as he underwhelmed for large parts of the season.

Ruud went 26-18 on the surface last year, a disappointing record for the world number six, who went on an incredibly poor run after the US Open.

Between September and November, Ruud held a shocking 2-8 record on hard courts, that only just saw him qualify for the year-end ATP Finals.

It was there that he rediscovered his form as Ruud beat Alcaraz in his opening match, before taking down Andrey Rublev to qualify for the last four.

Ruud then lost to Sinner as his resurgence came to an end, but had reminded fans of his hard-court capabilities.

It remains to be seen which version of Ruud we will see in Melbourne, but he’ll be hoping to put his hard-court struggles behind him when he plays Jaume Munar on Sunday, January 12.

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