The first round draw has been made, and this year’s hopefuls for the season’s first Grand Slam have a clearer picture of their journeys to the latter stages. Ahead of Saturday’s start date, take a glance at our Australian Open picks for day one.

2024 Australian Open Picks Day One

1.

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Australian Open Pick Day One: De Minaur vs Raonic Under 36.5 Games

Former world number three and Australian Open semi-finalist Milos Ranonic is perhaps one of a handful of names Alex de Minaur was hoping to avoid in the first round.

Australia’s hopes of a home Slam winner in Melbourne rest on his shoulders after Nick Kygrios pulled out through injury, but he appears to be hitting his stride at the optimal time this season, after breaking into the top 10 for the first time this month.

He looked incredibly sharp, almost scarily so, in an exhibition with Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz – who is second-favorite across tennis sportsbooks –  this week with a 6-4, 5-7, (10-3) victory. This follows a sensational string of performances at the United Cup this month, where he downed three top 10 competitors – Taylor Fritz, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev – on his way to the semi-finals with Australia.

He will of course have to be wary of Raonic’s monstrous service game which regularly clocks in at over 200 km/h. Raonic is far from the player he used to be however, never fully recovering from the achilles injury that ruled him out for nearly two years.

De Minaur has all the momentum behind him to register a deep run to rival our Australian Open outright winner picks, and we expect him to race out the blocks here with a fast and furious win in under 36.5 games.

This is actually NUTS from Alex de Minaur, poor Fritz man lol pic.twitter.com/isThaKXoFG

— J.P. Hovey (@jhovey34) January 1, 2024

Australian Open Pick Day One: Murray First Set vs Etcheverry

Andy Murray returns to Melbourne for his 15th career Australian Open – five of which have seen him finish runner-up.

Last season was undoubtedly the best version of Murray we have seen since almost being forced to retire at this very tournament in 2018, leaving the court in floods of tears.

His best showing at a Grand Slam in 2023 came at Melbourne Park as he reached the third round, and although the draw has not been kind to the two-time Wimbledon champion with a potential meeting with Novak Djokovic in round three, he can hope to make it through the first.

Tomas Martin Etcheverry will be a stern test to cut his teeth in 2024’s Grand Slam opener, with the Argentine heading to Australia as the 30th seed. We do expect Murray to punch his ticket for the second round here however, and he enters off the back of a morale boosting win.

That came against former US Open winner and Australian Open finalist Dominic Thiem as he cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 victory at the Kooyong Classic. Although Etcheverry has youth on his side, Murray’s game management in the early stages of Slams last year was excellent, and we are predicting him to claim the first set in his first round test.