Monday 19 January 2026
Tennis is in full swing now, with the 2026 Australian Open kicking off yesterday in Melbourne. But if you missed the action last week and are keen to catch up on all the results – and off-court drama – then I’ve got a full recap for you below.
Last week’s champs
There were a handful of events for those chasing last-minute form leading into the Australian Open. Here’s who prevailed:
- Auckland (ATP 250) – Jakub Mensik beat Sebastian Baez 6-3, 7-6(7)
- Adelaide (ATP 250) – Tomas Machac beat Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-2
- Adelaide (WTA 500) – Mirra Andreeva beat Victoria Mboko 6-3, 6-1
- Hobart (WTA 250) – Elisabetta Cocciaretto beat Iva Jovic 6-4, 6-4
It was a week for young talent on the WTA Tour last week, with three of the four finalists in their teens. Andreeva withstood an early onslaught from Mboko before winning 12 of the last 13 games to bag her first WTA 500 title, while Cocciaretto did well to neutralize the big hitting of Jovic in Hobart.
For the men, it was a congested tournament in Auckland thanks to rain. Mensik handled the scheduling mess the best, powering his way to a second Tour-level title and ending Baez’s hot winning streak in 2026. Machac also bagged a second title, edging out Humbert in a decider in Adelaide.
Young qualifiers in Melbourne
Speaking of youth, there were some excellent young prospects who shone in the Australian Open qualifying last week as well. Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, Rei Sakamoto, Rafael Jodar made it three teenagers through for the men, while the likes of Nishesh Basavareddy, Michael Zheng and Martin Damm (info on Martin Damm’s racquet) – all in their early 20s – all made it through too, as did Alexander Blockx as a lucky loser.
For the women, it was 17-year-old Lilli Tagger who stole the show in qualifying. The Austrian teen fell in the third round, but played lights-out tennis to dispatch Diane Parry and Elena Pridankina in her first two matches. She’s one to watch for sure, and is still an outside chance of bagging a lucky loser spot.
What took the cake from qualifying was Sebastian Ofner’s major blunder, though. Playing a final set tiebreak against Basavareddy, the Austrian thought he’d won the match at 7-1, forgetting that deciding breakers go to 10. He celebrated, was corrected by the umpire, then went on to lose 13-11.
How’s this for a cold celebration from Basavareddy?
One Point Slam an instant hit
Before we dive into the first round action at the Australian Open, the highlight of Opening Week was the One Point Slam. It’s no secret that the Grand Slams are in an arms race to attract more fans and generate more revenue by expanding to three-week events. The US Open set the bar with their brilliant mixed doubles event last year, but now, the Australian Open have raised that bar with the One Point Slam.
The format was simple: amateurs, pros and a sprinkling of celebrities, all competing in a knockout tournament for $1 million. As the name implies, matches were a grand total of one point long.
What made it a smash hit was how this evened things out. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner were all out before the quarter-finals – a refreshing change – while six of the last eight standing were WTA players and the winner was an amateur, Jordan Smith.
Sure, the broadcast dragged it out to almost three hours which felt a bit excessive, and the paper, scissors, rock was diabolical, but people watched. Rod Laver Arena was packed out, I was glued to my screen, and it felt like a perfect way to warm fans up to the stars they’d be seeing next week.
Bottom line, it led to record attendance across the first week of the Australian Open, with well over 200,000 fans pouring through the gates.
Australian Open kicks off with upsets, and upset fans
Mere hours into the Australian Open there were upsets on the board, as No 20 seed Flavio Cobolli fell to Britain’s Arthur Fery. Ekaterina Alexandrova, Dayana Yastremska and Marta Kostyuk were also casualties of day one, while Sebastian Korda fell to compatriot Michael Zheng (image on top) in his first-ever Tour-level match.
But it was upset fans that caught headlines.
A record 73,235 people packed through the gates for the day session on Sunday at Melbourne Park, breaking the event’s attendance record. They’ve clearly been doing something well with their marketing, but for many fans, it led to a poor experience. Social media was awash with complaints about long lines and an inability to watch tennis.
I’ll touch more on this later in the week, but from my perspective (I was there for 12+ hours yesterday), haters gonna hate. I managed to hop around between half a dozen different matches and had a brilliant time. Sure, some planning was involved – and God forbid a little waiting at times – but the overall experience was still excellent.
Check more of our best bets for the Australian Open.
Sonmez wins hearts
Closing things out with a feel-good story, Turkish qualifier Zeynep Sonmez became everyone’s favorite player on Sunday at the Australian Open when she not only beat Alexandrova, but assisted an ailing ball girl.
As seen in the clip below, a ball girl fainted on the sideline mid-match. Sonmez was quick to react, helping stabilize her and then assisting her off the court.
“She was really struggling. She said she was fine but it was really obvious she was not fine,” Sonmez said afterwards.
“So I went to grab her and said ‘sit down and drink something, you’re not fine’. As we were walking she fainted so luckily ?I grabbed her. She was really shaking.
“I always say ?it’s more important to be a good human being than a good tennis player. It was just my instinct to help her and everyone would do the same. I’m happy I got ?to help.”
Coming up next week
It’s all action at the Australian Open over the coming week. In seven days’ time we’ll be close to knowing our quarter-finalists in Melbourne, with plenty of matches to play out between now and then. I’m on the ground catching the action myself, so keep an eye out for the Kiwi in the pink shirt cheering on Novak Djokovic and Joao Fonseca. In the meantime, check out my draw previews for a heads up about which matches to watch this week.
