Tennis season kicks into high gear with Australian Open 2026

Tennis is a sport that never sleeps. Even after the 2025 season officially wound down, drama continued to unfold. Off the court and in exhibition events.

The ‘Battle of the Sexes’, made famous in 1973 when Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in a best-of-five sets clash that advanced the cause of women’s equality in the sport, got an overly-commercial and underwhelming reboot late December as Nick Kyrgios emerged from his self-imposed sabbatical and defeated women’s World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in two sets.

In the off-season, Carlos Alcaraz surprisingly parted ways with his long-time coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, who has been a constant, and crucial, presence in his corner as the Spaniard has surged towards greatness and captured six Grand Slam titles.

Novak Djokovic began the new year the same way he ended 2025, with tournament withdrawals due to injury. In a bid to keep his focus on tennis, Djokovic also quit from the Professional Tennis Players’ Association, a breakaway player body he had helped establish as a rival to the governing men’s tennis body, Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), because it no longer aligns with his vision.

2025 has bled into 2026 and only a fortnight into the new year, the season is already ten tournaments deep. The frenzied start kicks into high gear with the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open, which takes place in Melbourne from January 18 to February 1. And some of the off-season narratives may well come into play as tennis stars begin life afresh in 2026.

Triple treat

The men’s title may yet again come down to three players – Jannik Sinner, Alcaraz and Djokovic. While Sinner and Alcaraz have dominated the men’s game in the last two years, splitting the eight Grand Slams between themselves, the Serb is hanging in there for history and nostalgia.

Really, for a man just four months away from his 39th birthday, in one of the most physically demanding sports, Djokovic is not doing all that badly. In 2025, he reached the semi-finals of all four majors. Injury stalled his Aussie Open campaign, before he ran into those all-too familiar hurdles – Sinner or Alacraz—in the other three Slams. Like it had been at the start of his career, with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, or ‘Fedal’ as tennis fans now term them, Djokovic is the third wheel in the ‘Sincaraz’ era.

“I lost three out of four slams in semis against these guys,” Djokovic said, after losing to Alcaraz at the US Open. “Best-of-five makes it very, very difficult for me to play them. Particularly if it’s like the end stages of a Grand Slam.”

After over 20 years on tour, Djokovic’s body is groaning, rebelling. A shoulder injury brought an early end to the 2025 season, and the Serb pulled out of this year’s Adelaide Open, his only tune-up event ahead of the Australian Open, due to the injury. Djokovic, who last won a major at the 2023 US Open, is still chasing a 25th Grand Slam title, which will help him pull away from Margaret Court and become the sole holder of the all-time record for most singles majors. The Australian Open, where he has been the most successful with 10 titles, offers Djokovic the best chance.

There is an element of uncertainty as Alcaraz bids to become the youngest player to win a career Grand Slam. Only 22, the Spaniard has conquered most of the tennis world, captured six major titles, and sits at the summit of the world rankings. The Australian Open remains the final frontier. His best performance in Melbourne remains a quarterfinal finish (2024, 2025).

This will be Alcaraz’s first tournament since splitting with his coach. Former French Open champion Ferrero has been his coach since Alcaraz was 15 and has guided him past every professional obstacle so far. It was the unsmiling, disciplinarian Ferrero who built this generation’s most dazzling talent. Ferrero was the anchor that tethered Alcaraz’s high-flying ambition. Whether the player soars or sinks without his coach remains to be seen, and the Aussie Open will be the first test.

And it will be an important test as Alcaraz and Sinner look to extend their rivalry to Melbourne.

The top two players have now clashed in the finals of the last three Grand Slam tournaments. While the Spaniard survived match points to script an epic five-set win over Sinner at the French Open, Sinner proved strength of character by exacting revenge at Wimbledon. Alcaraz broke the tie by beating Sinner in the US Open final.

“I’m seeing you more than my family,” the Spaniard jokingly told Sinner during the US Open trophy presentation. Inevitably, their fortunes are now tied to one another, Alcaraz is the only man to beat Sinner in a major final and vice versa.

As the two of them cranked up the intensity, taking chunks off each other every time they clashed on court even while keeping things civil, almost friendly, tennis finally fully embraced the new rivalry. Alcaraz currently leads the head-to-head 10-6, but Sinner narrowed the gap by winning the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals.

The Italian will hope to carry that momentum into the new season. After dethroning Djokovic in 2024, Sinner, with a game hired-wired for hard courts, has reigned supreme and arrives at the Australian Open as the two-time defending champion.

Open season

Though 2025 yet again saw four different women winning the season’s four Grand Slams, there was a semblance of consistency as Sabalenka made the finals of three majors. The Belarusian may cut a polarising figure off the court, but on it, the hard-hitting Sabalenka has clearly emerged as the player to beat. The reigning US Open champion and World No. 1 began her year with a title win in Brisbane.

While Sabalenka starts the favourite, leading a horde of challengers will be Swiatek. In 2025, the Pole moved on from her reputation as a clay-court demon to conquer temperamental grass. After a wobble at the French Open, Swiatek defied expectations to win her first Wimbledon title. And in style, as she did not drop a single game against Amanda Anisimova in the final.

Despite the Wimbledon clean sweep, Anisimova was the surprise package of the season. After nearly 17 months away from the tour to tend to her mental health, Anisimova came back in late 2024 and made a mark in the second half of 2025 with her big game. She made the final of Wimbledon, US Open and the WTA Tour Finals to announce her return.

Another year, and another comeback is already brewing. Belinda Bencic, who returned to the tour last year after having a baby in 2024, has made some big moves at the start of 2026. She took Switzerland to the final of the United Cup and was 9-0 in the tournament. On Monday, when the latest WTA rankings were updated, Bencic found herself at No 10 in the world, making her the first player since Serena Williams in 2019 to break into the top-10 after childbirth.

As the tour heads to the grand stage of the Australian Open, the sport is alive again with storylines and possibilities.

Deepti Patwardhan is a sportswriter based in Mumbai.