VIEWING GUIDE | To our global audience - thanks for joining us sports fans.... 00:00 standby for full episode breakdown... 00:02 INTRO | G'day & Welcome to 'this australian open life'... 00:09 #WILDCARDS GRAND SLAM DREAMING AUSSIES | RISING STARS 00:28 - RISING AUSSIE STARS - who are the nine #WILDCARDS #AO2024? 01:46 ATP TOUR | MEN'S DRAW #WILDCARDS 01:52 Li Tu (SA) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE 02:45 Tristan Schoolkate (WA) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE 03:23 James McCabe (NSW) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE 04:36 AO Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off #WILDCARDS 05:57 WTA TOUR | WOMEN'S DRAW #WILDCARDS 06:44 Talia Gibson (WA) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE 07:28 Emerson Jones (Qld) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE 09:18 Daria Saville (Vic)# WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE 10:35 Ajla Tomljanovic (Qld) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE 12:11 Stan Wawrinka (CHE) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE 13:58 #WILDCARDS SPOTLIGHT SERIES | Ep 4.3 | ABOUT - 'this australian open life', produced by Wise Words Media. We're based in Melbourne, Australia. 16:33 TICKETING INFO | GROUND PASSES & QUALIFYING PASSES 16:58 Stick around with us during #AO2025! --- Nine wildcards have been awarded to players to compete at Australian Open 2025, a group headlined by three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka. Wawrinka will be joined at Melbourne Park - where the main draw begins on 12 January - by Tristan Schoolkate (WA), Li Tu (SA), James McCabe (NSW), Daria Saville (Vic), Ajla Tomljanovic, Emerson Jones (Qld), Talia Gibson (WA) and Maya Joint (Qld). China’s Zhang Shuai and Kasidit Samrej of Thailand have already been granted AO 2025 main draw wildcards after winning the AO Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off. More main draw wildcards, plus wildcard entries to the AO qualifying tournament, will be announced soon. VIEW: #ao2025 Men’s singles entry list | Women’s singles entry list * www.tennis.com.au/doc/ao25-mens-singles-main-draw-entry-list * www.tennis.com.au/doc/ao25-womens-singles-main-draw-entry-list
Omar Jasika received the final wildcard for the aussie men. Whilst Lucas Pouille received the French wildcard and Nishesh Basavareddy received the USA wildcard. Since Pouille is the 2nd alt in the maindraw if he gets into the maindraw via his ranking then the wildcard will go to the retiring Richard Gasquet. Who do you think out of all the wildcards have the best shot of making it to the 2nd round or further? Do you think any aussies will qualify for the maindraw. I'm curious to see how Bernard Tomic will go alongside Alex Bolt and the returning Jason Kubler. Bit of luck they qualify along with Dane Sweeney, Marc Polmans and hopefully Cruz Hewitt can get a win in the qualifying. Which aussie do you think will do the best at the Australian Open. Maybe Nick Kyrgios will make a deep run if he does well at Brisbane. Will de minuar finally make the quarters? How will the other Australians do? These style of videos are great, longer videos are always better. Keep it up looking forward to Brisbane and the United Cup starting this week. Hopefully Alex De Minuar can take us all the way to the final. Hopefully Nick Kyrgios can make a deep run in Brisbane along with Thanasis Kokkinakis, Alexei Popyrin, Jordan Thompson, Rinky Hijikata and Adam Walton. Also it'll be great to see Nick and Novak team up in the doubles. Watch out for the players in the qualifying of Brisbane with James Duckworth, Alexander Vukic, Christopher O'Connell, Jason Kubler, Alex Bolt, Tristian Schoolkate set to take part. Li Tu, Dane Sweeney, Blake Ellis and potentially Bernard Tomic will get qualifying wildcards into Brisbane qualifying. Also forgot to mention Jasika will be part of Australia's United Cup team so that'll be great for him to learn under De Minuar as he plays against some of the bst players in the world. Also regarding Luke Saville he has been playing alot of singles mainly on the ITF tour and is slowly building up his ranking. Also with Stan I think this sadly will be his final year on tour hopefully he can reach the 2nd round or better. Bring on the Aussie Summer!
G'day @DynamicPool28 - whew! Thanks - this is a most thorough & comprehensive breakdown / summary / outlook. Much appreciated, mate. Let me review & digest... re: 'These style of videos are great, longer videos are always better'... thanks for this - appreciate it. I like the longer form myself too...glad it resonates with yourself. btw - archive footage from past 3 years qualifying weeks #AO2022 to #AO2024 that has to find it's way out into the sunlight - look out for this also. btw #2 - watch out for SPOTLIGHT SERIES 'subscriber shout-out' episode. Was hoping to complete today - the edit got a bit too big on me today, unlikely to have it up before end of week. Long-ish one later this week. Just finished the VO, stay tuned... surprise 'human interest' story angle. Thanks again - more later... The Bloke
G'day @DanTuber - thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I couldn't sense the same re: nepotism when researching / profiling the kid last week: * ⁴ᴷ Cruz Hewitt Highly Rated Aussie Junior! | PLAYER WATCH #grandslam #ao2025 #wildcards #atptour * ruclips.net/video/PRHu1j336WQ/видео.html Lleyton's pride and animal competitive instinct(s) as player/father/mentor/davis cup captain ... you really think so? Knowing Lleyton's public persona the way we do - notwithstanding the fact he's current Aussie Davis Cup captain - I can't possibly see how there's any whiff of nepotism. I'd get a little suss if Cruz suddenly appeared in the Davis Cup squad and led off a few ties in a row as lead player... btw - Cruz was nominated for young male tennis player 2024, his ITF juniors rank went to #90 or #99 in October 2024. He lost that award to Hayden Jones (18), who also was given #AO2025 wildcard. ok so devil's advocate time - who would you give Cruz wildcard to instead? Appreciate you taking time to contribute. The more conversation here, the better as far as we're concerned. Thanks again. 'this australian open life'
@@thisaustralianopenlife His ranking is close 1500 atp. Makes a mockery of all the guys grinding it out on the challenger tour who just miss it outside the top 250. AO juniors is his tournament.
G'day @DanTuber - thanks again. Candour much appreciated. I get where you're coming from now. I take your point. In terms of #wildcards, you've reminded me why I dubbed 1 half of the $pecial K's 'Box Office Nick Kyrgios' a couple of years ago. He was also given a wildcard. In my own uniformed way, I felt it was granted purely to draw the crowds, maintain telly ratings and keep the click baits going. Prepared to also admit I was a bit miffed ...at the time. Also with Saville and Tomljanovic - are their #AO2025 #wildcards justifiable? I'm keen to always find/unearth Challenger tour players. Are you aware of 1 or 2 mens/womens singles who would be worth profiling? No probs if not. I appreciate your frank input and insights. Across the board, helps to keep me learning about who is out there grinding on the challenger tour. In turn I can create greater awareness of those players here hopefully. Thanks again AOLife
VIEWING GUIDE | To our global audience - thanks for joining us sports fans....
00:00 standby for full episode breakdown...
00:02 INTRO | G'day & Welcome to 'this australian open life'...
00:09 #WILDCARDS GRAND SLAM DREAMING AUSSIES | RISING STARS
00:28 - RISING AUSSIE STARS - who are the nine #WILDCARDS #AO2024?
01:46 ATP TOUR | MEN'S DRAW #WILDCARDS
01:52 Li Tu (SA) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE
02:45 Tristan Schoolkate (WA) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE
03:23 James McCabe (NSW) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE
04:36 AO Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off #WILDCARDS
05:57 WTA TOUR | WOMEN'S DRAW #WILDCARDS
06:44 Talia Gibson (WA) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE
07:28 Emerson Jones (Qld) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE
09:18 Daria Saville (Vic)# WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE
10:35 Ajla Tomljanovic (Qld) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE
12:11 Stan Wawrinka (CHE) #WILDCARDS PLAYER PROFILE
13:58 #WILDCARDS SPOTLIGHT SERIES | Ep 4.3 | ABOUT - 'this australian open life', produced by Wise Words Media. We're based in Melbourne, Australia.
16:33 TICKETING INFO | GROUND PASSES & QUALIFYING PASSES
16:58 Stick around with us during #AO2025!
---
Nine wildcards have been awarded to players to compete at Australian Open 2025, a group headlined by three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka.
Wawrinka will be joined at Melbourne Park - where the main draw begins on 12 January - by Tristan Schoolkate (WA), Li Tu (SA), James McCabe (NSW), Daria Saville (Vic), Ajla Tomljanovic, Emerson Jones (Qld), Talia Gibson (WA) and Maya Joint (Qld).
China’s Zhang Shuai and Kasidit Samrej of Thailand have already been granted AO 2025 main draw wildcards after winning the AO Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off.
More main draw wildcards, plus wildcard entries to the AO qualifying tournament, will be announced soon.
VIEW: #ao2025 Men’s singles entry list | Women’s singles entry list
* www.tennis.com.au/doc/ao25-mens-singles-main-draw-entry-list
* www.tennis.com.au/doc/ao25-womens-singles-main-draw-entry-list
Omar Jasika received the final wildcard for the aussie men. Whilst Lucas Pouille received the French wildcard and Nishesh Basavareddy received the USA wildcard. Since Pouille is the 2nd alt in the maindraw if he gets into the maindraw via his ranking then the wildcard will go to the retiring Richard Gasquet. Who do you think out of all the wildcards have the best shot of making it to the 2nd round or further? Do you think any aussies will qualify for the maindraw. I'm curious to see how Bernard Tomic will go alongside Alex Bolt and the returning Jason Kubler. Bit of luck they qualify along with Dane Sweeney, Marc Polmans and hopefully Cruz Hewitt can get a win in the qualifying. Which aussie do you think will do the best at the Australian Open. Maybe Nick Kyrgios will make a deep run if he does well at Brisbane. Will de minuar finally make the quarters? How will the other Australians do? These style of videos are great, longer videos are always better. Keep it up looking forward to Brisbane and the United Cup starting this week. Hopefully Alex De Minuar can take us all the way to the final. Hopefully Nick Kyrgios can make a deep run in Brisbane along with Thanasis Kokkinakis, Alexei Popyrin, Jordan Thompson, Rinky Hijikata and Adam Walton. Also it'll be great to see Nick and Novak team up in the doubles. Watch out for the players in the qualifying of Brisbane with James Duckworth, Alexander Vukic, Christopher O'Connell, Jason Kubler, Alex Bolt, Tristian Schoolkate set to take part. Li Tu, Dane Sweeney, Blake Ellis and potentially Bernard Tomic will get qualifying wildcards into Brisbane qualifying. Also forgot to mention Jasika will be part of Australia's United Cup team so that'll be great for him to learn under De Minuar as he plays against some of the bst players in the world. Also regarding Luke Saville he has been playing alot of singles mainly on the ITF tour and is slowly building up his ranking. Also with Stan I think this sadly will be his final year on tour hopefully he can reach the 2nd round or better. Bring on the Aussie Summer!
G'day @DynamicPool28 - whew! Thanks - this is a most thorough & comprehensive breakdown / summary / outlook. Much appreciated, mate. Let me review & digest...
re: 'These style of videos are great, longer videos are always better'... thanks for this - appreciate it. I like the longer form myself too...glad it resonates with yourself.
btw - archive footage from past 3 years qualifying weeks #AO2022 to #AO2024 that has to find it's way out into the sunlight - look out for this also.
btw #2 - watch out for SPOTLIGHT SERIES 'subscriber shout-out' episode. Was hoping to complete today - the edit got a bit too big on me today, unlikely to have it up before end of week.
Long-ish one later this week. Just finished the VO, stay tuned... surprise 'human interest' story angle.
Thanks again - more later...
The Bloke
Cruz has no hope and shouldn't be in the field. Nepotism at it's finest.
G'day @DanTuber - thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I couldn't sense the same re: nepotism when researching / profiling the kid last week:
* ⁴ᴷ Cruz Hewitt Highly Rated Aussie Junior! | PLAYER WATCH #grandslam #ao2025 #wildcards #atptour
* ruclips.net/video/PRHu1j336WQ/видео.html
Lleyton's pride and animal competitive instinct(s) as player/father/mentor/davis cup captain ... you really think so? Knowing Lleyton's public persona the way we do - notwithstanding the fact he's current Aussie Davis Cup captain - I can't possibly see how there's any whiff of nepotism.
I'd get a little suss if Cruz suddenly appeared in the Davis Cup squad and led off a few ties in a row as lead player...
btw - Cruz was nominated for young male tennis player 2024, his ITF juniors rank went to #90 or #99 in October 2024. He lost that award to Hayden Jones (18), who also was given #AO2025 wildcard.
ok so devil's advocate time - who would you give Cruz wildcard to instead?
Appreciate you taking time to contribute. The more conversation here, the better as far as we're concerned. Thanks again.
'this australian open life'
@@thisaustralianopenlife His ranking is close 1500 atp. Makes a mockery of all the guys grinding it out on the challenger tour who just miss it outside the top 250. AO juniors is his tournament.
G'day @DanTuber - thanks again. Candour much appreciated. I get where you're coming from now. I take your point.
In terms of #wildcards, you've reminded me why I dubbed 1 half of the $pecial K's 'Box Office Nick Kyrgios' a couple of years ago. He was also given a wildcard. In my own uniformed way, I felt it was granted purely to draw the crowds, maintain telly ratings and keep the click baits going. Prepared to also admit I was a bit miffed ...at the time.
Also with Saville and Tomljanovic - are their #AO2025 #wildcards justifiable?
I'm keen to always find/unearth Challenger tour players. Are you aware of 1 or 2 mens/womens singles who would be worth profiling? No probs if not.
I appreciate your frank input and insights. Across the board, helps to keep me learning about who is out there grinding on the challenger tour. In turn I can create greater awareness of those players here hopefully.
Thanks again
AOLife