On January 3, the first round of the ATP 250 Brisbane tournament was over, and the matches continued to be upset, with five seeds crashing out. Nadal was in fine form after returning from injury, beating Grand Slam champion Thiem 7-5, 6-1 to advance to the second round.
In addition to the top players participating in the United Cup, Rune, Dimitrov, Murray, Nadal, Thiem, Shelton, Koda and other top players participated in the competition. Among them, Nadal has attracted much attention.
There were plenty of upsets in the first round, with third seed Shelton facing Safiulin in the first round. Shelton exploded in 2023, reaching the semifinals of the US Open and breaking into the top 20 in the world. Facing an opponent of average strength, Sheldon was in average form in the first round, and fought hard with his opponent in three sets, and finally lost to his opponent 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, and suffered a round of defeat.
No. 5 seed Korda faced Hanfman in the first round, and it was also a disparity of defeat. Korda's key points were more hesitant and made more mistakes, and finally lost to the opponent 5-7, 4-6 and was out of the game.
Also out of the tournament was sixth seed Báez, who suffered a 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 upset to qualifier Klein. No.7 seed Etcheverri was also reversed by qualifier Mahachi to pull off the tournament 1-2. Eighth seed Karatsev was also out of the tournament and retired in the third set after a two-set tie with wildcard Kübler to 1-1.
Rafael Nadal has been off for almost a year and has opted for a comeback against qualifier and Grand Slam champion Thiem in the first round. The first round of the two Grand Slam champions was the focus of the first round. Nadal was in good form and played a more restrained first set, narrowly winning 7-5. In the second set, Nadal opened up and easily won 6-1 and won 2-0 with a big score, making an easy start.
Murray, one of the former Big Four, faced No. 2 seed Dimitrov in the first round, and Murray lost in three sets to 6-4, 5-7, 2-6 and missed the second round. Compared with his peak, there is a huge gap between Murray's strength, and it will be very difficult to return to the top ranks in the future.