Australia, 6 January 2021 | Leigh Rogers

The 2021 season commences this week for two Australian players – Alex de Minaur and Ajla Tomljanovic.

De Minaur is competing at an ATP 250 tournament in Turkey, while Tomljanovic will contest a WTA 500 tournament in the United Arab Emirates.

The No.23-ranked De Minaur is the fourth seeded in Antalya this week, where he faces Tunisian Malek Jaziri in the opening round.

It is De Minaur’s first career-meeting against the No.249-ranked Jaziri, a 36-year-old who achieved a career-high ranking of No.42 in 2019.

World No.68-ranked Tomljanovic plays China’s Zhu Lin in the opening round in Abu Dhabi. The 27-year-old Tomljanovic won her only previous meeting against the No.91-ranked Zhu, in Hiroshima in 2018.

Tomljanovic will also play doubles with reigning Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in Abu Dhabi.

Both De Minaur, who lives in Spain, and the Florida-based Tomljanovic opted to spend the Christmas and New Years period with family overseas. They will travel to Australia next week and complete their two-week quarantine in Melbourne with other main draw players ahead of the Australian Open.

Aussies in action this week:

Antalya, Turkey
Men’s singles, first round
[4] Alex de Minaur (AUS) v Malek Jaziri (TUN)

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Women’s singles, first round
Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) v Zhu Lin (CHN)

Women’s doubles, first round
Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS)/Sofia Kenin (USA) v Maria Sakkari (GRE)/Donna Vekic (CRO)