Thoughts on the 2026 Australian Open
Alcaraz earns immortality, Rybakina outlasts Sabalenka, Djokovic still has it and much more
Alcaraz becomes eternal in tennis history
It’s not even three years since Carlos Alcaraz nervously cramped his way out of the Roland Garros semi-final. After much hype before the contest, Novak Djokovic handily won in the end, only giving up a couple of games in the final sets to the ailing 20-year-old.
Although the Spaniard was by that stage a major champion, injury issues and the stress that afflicted him during that semi-final raised questions. As I write this piece, Alcaraz has now made as big an impact on the men’s singles game as John McEnroe and Mats Wilander. Never mind those questions.
We know and admire Carlos for his cheerful nature and exuberant - at times reckless - play. But it is merely a cloaking mechanism. This 22-year-old has the same core as Rafael Nadal, but his wiring is a little different.
After that crushing defeat at Roland Garros in 2023, Alcaraz recovered only weeks later to beat the seven-time Wimbledon champion on the famed turf. In more ways than one, the Spaniard dethroned Djokovic on Centre Court over five sets.
That core has only toughened in the time since, as the Serb has (slightly) declined with age while the Murcian has flourished. Four more majors have followed since the Championships of 2023 and last weekend, Alcaraz joined the most prestigious of clubs.
At just 22, and for the first time without his long term coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alcaraz has already achieved the career grand slam in just 20 main draw appearances. He has won three of the last four grand slams, and five of the last eight. And we now move into his strongest stretch of the season.
Given the quality we have seen him produce at Roland Garros last year, at Flushing Meadows, and then in the Melbourne final, why can’t he chase the calendar grand slam? We may have to stop thinking in terms of limits when it comes to the youngest ATP no.1 in history.
Elation for Elena as she grabs major no.2
While Alcaraz exudes playfulness with his mannerisms and style of play, Elena Rybakina is the silent assassin. There’s no grunting or histrionics, just a barrage of clean shots until the job is done.
Last Saturday, the Kazakh lifted her game onto another strata as she captured major no.2. After a supreme end to 2025, where she lifted the WTA Finals trophy, this Australian Open was there for the 26-year-old and she duly delivered.
Rybakina dispatched two top five stalwarts in Iga Swiatek and Jessie Pegula before downing the big cheese herself - Aryna Sabalenka - in the final. The Kazakh was formidable across the board, leading the tournament in aces (47) but also near the top on return points won.
We know how good Rybakina can be when everything is flowing, so I was particularly impressed with how she responded to losing the second set in the final.
After a brief moment of panic, she reacquired that deadly calm and took full advantage of Sabalenka’s late tension.
After several years of a duopoly atop women’s tennis, it’s refreshing to see Rybakina join the club of multiple major winners. However, unlike Coco Gauff, Barbora Krejcikova and Marketa Vondrousova, it does feel like the Kazakh has the consistency to really challenge Sabalenka and Swiatek across the season.
The fire still burns in Djokovic
The arc of Novak Djokovic’s career is fascinating. He’s gone from the underdog against Federer and Nadal, to an extended period as the dominant force in men’s tennis, to once again the challenger to more fancied foes.
The biggest challenge for most of the last 20 years was for a player to beat two, or all, of the Big Three to earn a title. It didn’t happen often with David Nalbandian (Madrid 2007) the true exception here as he beat Nadal, Djokovic and Federer back-to-back-to-back.
The steepest task now is to beat both Alcaraz and Sinner, and Novak was closer than I think any of us expected he could get at 38 years of age.
For the majority of his epic semi-final with the Italian, and the start of the final, Djokovic was extraordinarily good. The movement was sharp, service accurate, and the forehand utterly destructive. It was his best level for years.
That level was probably too good to maintain, and so it proved.
Unfortunately for the 24-time major winner, he faced a man in the Championship match sixteen years his junior but every bit the supreme competitor. Djokovic forced Alcaraz to a level of excellence and the Spaniard duly found it once more.
It was an incredible tournament for Djokovic and he must surely think there is another window of opportunity in London rather than Paris.
Final issues growing for Sabalenka
It was a case of deja vu for Aryna Sabalenka in last weekend’s final as she lost the first set to a big hitter, recovered well in the second and then saw it slip away in the third. While the Belarusian demolished a racquet after that loss to Madison Keys, the 2026 result may hurt more because she squandered a strong lead.
After an impressive recovery in the second set, and with Rybakina finally showing some tension, Sabalenka got off to a healthy 3-0 lead in the decider. She eventually got within a game of a third Australian Open title at 5-3 before her game faltered. For whatever reason, the world no.1 could not close out and the Kazakh took advantage.
The loss means that Sabalenka has been defeated in three of the last four grand slam finals she’s played. Overall, she is now 50-50 in major finals. For comparison, Swiatek has won all six major finals she’s contested thus far. This is not a trend that Sabalenka will want to prolong, but she now moves onto the two majors she favours least.
Zverev the nearly man once more
Exactly a year ago I wrote:
With his enormous serve and powerful game, Zverev will continue to challenge at majors for the foreseeable future. The question is: after having to wait for the end of the Big Three’s dominance, has he been bypassed by the next generation too?
While he was so, so, so close against Alcaraz due to the Spaniard’s cramping/non-cramping issue, it was another loss to the top two in the end. Since 2024, Zverev has lost five in a row to Sinner, and four of his five clashes with Alcaraz.
You have to give him credit for taking advantage of Alcaraz’s situation, and he was braver on the ball than we have seen in the past, but is the 28-year-old really closing the gap on the top two? Would Alcaraz have swatted him aside in straights bar the injury?
As each grand slam comes and goes, he may well go down as the best player to never clinch one. Not a distinction he will embrace.
While a level below, a new crop of men are rising
They are a fair distance from the standard bearers, but it’s good to see a legitimate queue of rising talent consolidate on the men’s side.
Lorenzo Musetti was desperately unlucky to be stricken by injury while outplaying Djokovic in the last eight. There’s definitely a major final in the 23-year-old at some stage.
Ben Shelton made his fifth quarter-final at a major while the impressive Learner Tien reached his first. When you add in the likes of Jakub Mensik, Jiri Lehecka, Luciano Darderi and Joao Fonseca, we do at least have a crop of players that are improving before our eyes.
Jovic breaks out in Melbourne
There were some nice breakout performances on the women’s side too with 18-year-old Iva Jovic the young star of the fortnight.
The American upset Jasmine Paolini in the third round before demolishing Yulia Putintseva in the round of 16. The former junior world no.2 is settling in very nicely on the main tour and has started 2026 with an 11-3 record after fine efforts in Auckland and Hobart.
Apart from Jovic, Victoria Mboko continued her momentum from the end of last season and was only beaten by Sabalenka in Melbourne. 19-year-old Nikola Bartunkova, yet another Czech talen, also stole some headlines with high profile victories over Daria Kasatkina and Belinda Bencic in the early rounds.
Wanting more for less from TNT's coverage
On the TV front, I didn’t see any of the first week’s coverage but I saw plenty of TNT’s coverage for the second. At this stage, I’m not overly impressed by their coverage and I feel (particularly with the subscription model) that it’s a step down from Eurosport’s offering.
While Laura Robson is an impressive lead presenter, I’m not convinced by Tim Henman as the chief analyst along with Jamie Murray and Coco Vandeweghe. I like Henman, but I think he needs a polished main commentator like Mark Petchey or Nick Lester to bring the best out of him.
I also wasn’t impressed with the lack of a full replay of the men’s final to watch back. While it may have been added later, I couldn’t find it on Sunday evening despite extensive searching through the app.
I also miss the option to subscribe to the Eurosport app for the month required. At this stage, I am inundated with subscriptions.
Now too many people want to go to the tennis!
Upon wandering the grounds at Melbourne Park, I found an issue that is starting to blight the grand slams in general: too many spectators.
When I first went to Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2019, while you would find queues for the likes of Stan Wawrinka, Fernando Verdasco and Genie Bouchard on outside courts, generally it was easy enough to get in and grab a seat.
Now, there are frankly ridiculous queues around the grounds to see certain players.
It is genuinely becoming a problem to have Joao Fonseca or Naomi Osaka on an outside court as the hundreds that queue up to see them block areas and remove spectators from other courts.
There were also so many people to navigate through on the main thoroughfares, particularly in the early days of the Australian Open. So many bodies around the Garden Square, trying to enter the shops, and queuing on certain courts, that I practically hid on a main court to avoid the hassle of moving in the heat.
Of course I want more people to watch tennis, but have we reached capacity where people can comfortably traverse the grounds of a grand slam tournament?
Check out my gallery from the tournament
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