Rising up the ATP rankings, 19-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy is set to face Novak Djokovic in the first round of his debut Grand Slam main draw event, in Melbourne on Sunday. The American tennis player, of Indian origin, received a wildcard in the main draw of the 2025 Australian Open, and will be opening his campaign against the World No. 7. Nishesh is currently ranked 133rd in the ATP singles rankings, and also participated in the qualifying draw of the 2024 US Open last year.

Basavareddy hasn’t played a full ATP Tour season yet, and turned pro last year after qualifying for the Next Gen ATP Finals. He reached his first-ever competitive final at the Fairfield Challenger in 2023, and also lost in the finals in 2024 at the Challenger events in Fairfield and Charleston.

Success in 2024

Basavareddy, then clinched his maiden Challenger-level title in California in October, and also ended as runners-up at two more Challenger events in Knoxville and Champaign. In the next few months, he got his second title in Puerto Vallarta.

He is currently playing at his first-ever pro tournament at the ASB Classic. He didn’t get a direct entry into the main draw, and qualified for the ATP 250 tournament. He is set to face Gael Monfils in the semi-finals on Friday.

Ahead of Australian Open 2025

Speaking ahead of the season-opening Grand Slam event, Basavareddy said, “I think over the course of the summer and the fall there was a lot of thought, but I knew that if I qualified [for Jeddah] and with me also having a main-draw wild card for the Australian Open, that just made the decision a lot easier.”

“Knowing that I was going to be playing the bigger tournaments and getting close to the Top 100, that made it a pretty easy decision then, but it was never easy to leave behind college tennis and my team at Stanford”, he added.

After the 2024 US Open, Basavareddy won 28 of 34 Challenger matches from September to November, clinching two titles.