The World Number 1 underlined his position as the top hard court player after picking up a third straight Grand Slam on that surface and he is now enjoying some time away from the court having withdrawn from the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam.
He is expected to return later in the month when the Tour moves into the Middle East where a couple of big ATP tournaments are played in and around the WTA events.
Once again it was the women's event that created the bigger upset at the last Grand Slam with Madison Keys winning a Major for the first time in her career.
All credit has to be given to any player that can beat the top two players in the Rankings in consecutive matches as Madison Keys did and the American has to also be credited for being able to hold herself together as well as she did in the Semi Final and Final against Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka respectively.
Can Madison Keys kick on and win more big tournaments? It isn't beyond her talent, but inconsistency has been a feature of her career and Keys is also going to be playing with a bigger target on her back, which has been tough for first time Champions to deal with in the recent past.
All of the big names are heading to the WTA 1000 events in Doha and Dubai, which begin next week, although Madison Keys has decided to withdraw from the first of those events through a hamstring injury. That does increase the likelihood of Keys next being out on the court when the US hard court tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami are played next month.
There are a couple of big events being played this week and it is an important month on the Tennis Tour.
A decision was made to have a break after the Australian Open, if only to reset and in a week where Davis Cup and smaller events were taking place.
The 2025 Australian Open was night and day compared with the 2024 results and having a positive foundation to build upon is clearly a much better position to be in compared with twelve months ago.
It may not be a week in which Tennis Picks are made every day, especially with my tighter margins used at the Australian Open, but there is a lot of players out on the courts and plenty of matches to get through.
Of course it is most important to put some winners together and it is important to build on the performance from the Slam in Melbourne.
Alex De Minaur - 5.5 games v David Goffin: The home Grand Slam is always going to mean more to any player on the Tour and it was a very big moment for Alex De Minaur when he found his way into the Australian Open Quarter Final for the first time.
Despite that, the overall feeling out of the tournament may be one of disappointment after barely being able to lay a glove on Jannik Sinner in a very convincing defeat.
The run in Melbourne has pushed Alex De Minaur back into the top eight of the World Rankings, but the key for the Australian is to build on his performance. The Ranking has been built on the fact that Alex De Minaur tends to beat the players he should, but this is the first match since that Quarter Final defeat in front of his friends and family and we will get to find out how much that has affected the World Number 8.
Twelve months ago, Alex De Minaur was the Runner Up in Rotterdam having lost the Final against nemesis Jannik Sinner, but that run will at least mean he is returning to a favourable court.
First up is veteran David Goffin who is a former World Number 7, but at 34 years old is now outside the top 50 in the Rankings and who is having a tough opening to the 2025 season.
Four matches have been played by David Goffin this season and he has lost all of those, although the Belgian did at least win a set for the first time last week in Montpellier. The real concern for Goffin has to be the fact that all of the defeats have been against players Ranked lower than himself and now he has to face a top ten opponent who has been playing with a lot of confidence, even if the last time we saw him on the court was in a horribly one-sided defeat.
David Goffin is really struggling to protect his serve and someone like Alex De Minaur is going to make him play a lot- he is only holding 56% of service games in his four matches this year.
To make matters tougher, David Goffin has to overcome a 0-5 professional head to head record against Alex De Minaur, which includes losing ten of the eleven sets played. They actually met here in Rotterdam last year and De Minaur won very easily, while David Goffin has only held 50% of the service games played against the Australian in his career, which suggests he is going to have a hard time turning things around in 2025.
The Alex De Minaur serve is not a big weapon for him against the top players on the Tour, but over the last twelve months, he has held 85% of service games played on the hard courts when facing players Ranked outside the top 20 in the World Rankings.
With the head to head in his favour, Alex De Minaur can grind down David Goffin in this First Round match and he can cover this relatively big spread. In their last three matches, David Goffin has won three, four and four games and two of those matches have been right here in Rotterdam where the higher Ranked player can find a way to cruise through to the next Round.
MY PICKS: Alex De Minaur - 5.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (1 Unit)
2025 Season: 27-14, + 15.40 Units (79 Units Staked, + 19.49% Yield)
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