It is going to be the 58th version of the event within the Open Period, and Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys shall be out to defend their respective titles at Melbourne Park.
128 gamers shall be whittled down to simply two to battle it out for the season’s first main trophy, and there are many contenders for each the lads’s and girls’s crowns.
Sabalenka, the ladies’s world No1, is contemporary off her defeat by Nick Kyrgios on the controversial Battle of the Sexes, which occurred in Dubai in December.
The Belarusian, a four-time main champion, was overwhelmed by the Australian 6-3 6-3 on the Coca-Cola Enviornment.
The Spaniard then adopted that up by claiming the Japan Open, though he was overwhelmed by Sinner as soon as extra on the ATP World Tour Finals.
Alcaraz, 22, is bidding to go three phases additional Down Beneath than he did final 12 months, after he was overwhelmed by Novak Djokovic in an exciting quarter-final.
The Australian Open is the one main crown that the younger star has not collected to date, and he’s out to rectify that.
He comes into this event realizing that he can defeat Sinner, beating the Italian 7-5, 7-6 in an exhibition in South Korea.
Ought to Alcaraz win this 12 months’s occasion, he would grow to be the youngest ever males’s participant to finish the profession Grand Slam.
Defending champion: Jannik Sinner
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Additionally on the prime of the lads’s area are final 12 months’s defeated finalist Zverev, nonetheless looking for his first Grand Slam, and Djokovic, who stays on the hunt for that elusive twenty fifth main.
On the ladies’s aspect, it’s prone to be a battle between Sabalenka and her arch-rival Iga Swiatek.
Swiatek, the world No2, is like Alcaraz in that the Australian Open is the one one of many 4 majors that she has not received.
The Pole is the defending Wimbledon champion and is trying to attain a primary remaining Down Beneath, having been overwhelmed within the semi-finals final 12 months.
Individuals Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova are prone to push the top-ranked pair shut, whereas defending champion Keys is seeded ninth.
Gauff beat Swiatek earlier this month on the United Cup, whereas Anisimova crashed out within the spherical of 16 on the Brisbane Worldwide, which was received by Sabalenka on the ladies’s aspect, and Daniil Medvedev on the lads’s.
Maiden main: Madison Keys
AFP by way of Getty Photographs
When is the Australian Open?
The 2026 event runs from Sunday, January 18, by means of to Sunday, February 1.
It can happen at Melbourne Park.
When is the Australian Open draw?
The draw was made on Thursday, January 15 – the identical day because the qualifying rounds concluded.
Australian Open match schedule
Play will start every day at midnight UK time, with motion on the three present courts beginning at 1am GMT.
The evening classes will begin at 8am GMT.
January 18-20: First spherical
January 21-22: Second spherical
January 23-24: Third spherical
January 25-26: Fourth spherical
January 27-28: Quarter-finals
January 29: Girls’s semi-finals
January 30: Males’s semi-finals
January 31: Girls’s remaining
February 1: Males’s remaining
Tips on how to watch Australian Open
TV channel: All of the motion at this 12 months’s Australian Open is being broadcast stay on TNT Sports activities. The day’s play will start at midnight within the UK, with motion on the present courts commencing at 1am.
Protection on TNT Sports activities begins at 12.30am GMT on Sunday. Evening classes start at 8am GMT, with protection starting at 7am.
Stay stream: TNT Sports activities subscribers can stream the motion stay on-line on the Discovery+ app and web site.
Seeded: Emma Raducanu
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Australian Open wildcards
Eight wildcards are handed out for each the lads’s and girls’s attracts, whereas one other 16 qualifiers full the 128-strong brackets.
Cameron Norrie and Emma Raducanu would be the top-ranked Brits Down Beneath, however Jack Draper, the lads’s world No10, is not going to play in Melbourne after he withdrew from the event early with a persistent arm damage that has saved him out of motion since Wimbledon. He has solely performed one singles match since then.
Norrie had a promising finish to 2025 and has risen into the highest 32 of the ATP rankings, which secures him a seeded spot in Melbourne, whereas Raducanu is in the same place within the ladies’s area.
Norrie reached the final eight at Wimbledon and bought to the third spherical in New York, and he was a runner-up on the Moselle Open.
He proved to as soon as once more be a thorn in Alcaraz’s aspect as he defeated the world No1 for a 3rd time in his profession within the second spherical of the Paris Masters.
Jacob Fearnley is the third Briton within the prime 50 of the lads’s rankings, and he earned himself villain standing in Melbourne as he defeated residence favorite Nick Kyrgios within the first spherical final 12 months.
Final 12 months, Raducanu, 23, recorded her greatest ever run on the Australian Open, reaching the third spherical, the place she was overwhelmed by Swiatek.
She had overwhelmed each Ekaterina Alexandrova and Anisimova to achieve the that stage.
Since then, she has reached the semi-final of the Citi Open and the final eight in Miami to clamber into the highest 30 of the WTA rankings.
Her good buddy and compatriot Sonay Kartal reached the fourth spherical at Wimbledon and made it to the quarter-finals of the China Open again within the autumn.
Katie Boulter is in the primary draw after withdrawals led to her avoiding qualifying, whereas Fran Jones broke into the highest 100 final 12 months, having claimed two WTA 125 titles throughout the clay-court swing.
