Australian Open 2026 schedule and draw: Dates, seeds, format and favourites for first Grand Slam of year
Australian Open runs from January 18 until February 1 with Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys looking to successfully defend their singles titles; Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Britain's Emma Raducanu will all be in title contention
Thursday 8 January 2026 20:35, UK
The first Grand Slam of the year takes place at the Australian Open in Melbourne as Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys look to defend their titles.
Emma Raducanu and Cameron Norrie will be joined in the main draw by fellow Brits Jacob Fearnley, Sonay Kartal and Fran Jones.
The top-ranked players in the world enter the tournament automatically at the main draw stage, with 104 ranked players going directly into the singles draws alongside eight wildcard entries and 16 qualifiers.
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When is the 2025 Australian Open and when is the draw?
The main tournament (singles) starts on January 18, with the women's final on January 31 and the men's final on February 1.
The main draw will takes place on Thursday, January 15 at 2.30pm local time which is 3.30am UK and Ireland time.
Where is the Australian Open 2025 being held?
The Australian Open takes place at Melbourne Park, Melbourne - home to the Grand Slam event since 1988.
Melbourne Park has three show courts - the Rod Laver Arena (the second largest indoor sports venue in Australia with a capacity of 15,000), as well as the John Cain Arena (10,500 capacity) and Margaret Court Arena (7,500 capacity).
Australian Open match schedule
The tournament takes place every day from midnight UK and Ireland time each day on the outside courts and 1am on the show courts. Night sessions will start at 8am.
Jan 18-20: First round
Jan 21-22: Second round
Jan 23-24: Third round
Jan 25-26: Fourth round
Jan 27-28: Quarter-finals
Jan 29: Women's semi-finals
Jan 30: Men's semi-finals
Jan 31: Women's final (8.30am UK and Ireland time)
Feb 1: Men's final (8.30am UK and Ireland time)
The Australian Open schedule also includes:
- Men's and women's singles: 18 January - 1 February
- Men's and women's doubles: 20-31 January
- Mixed doubles: 22-30 January
- Wheelchair events: 27-31 January
- Junior events: 24 January - 1 February
Australian Open top-seeded players
Women's singles
- Aryna Sabalenka
- Iga Swiatek (POL)
- Coco Gauff (USA)
- Amanda Anisimova (USA)
- Elena Rybakina (KAZ)
Men's singles
- Carlos Alcaraz (ESP)
- Jannik Sinner (ITA)
- Alexander Zverev (GER)
- Novak Djokovic (SRB)
- Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN)
Who are the Brits competing at the Australian Open and where is Jack Draper?
Emma Raducanu enjoyed her career-best Australian Open run in 2025, defeating Ekaterina Alexandrova and Amanda Anisimova before losing out to Iga Swiatek.
The British No 1 finished last season ranked at world No 29 with highlight results including a semi-final at the Citi Open and quarter-final at the Miami Open.
Sonay Kartal will be looking to build on her strong 2025 season in which she reached the fourth round of Wimbledon and also beat Mirra Andreeva en route to her maiden WTA 1000 quarter-final at the China Open.
Fran Jones broke into the top 100 last season with consecutive WTA 125 titles on the clay and she'll be aiming for a first Grand Slam win.
She was previously told by doctors she would not play tennis professionally, having been born with a rare genetic condition.
Jones has Ectrodactyly Ectodermal Dysplasia (EEC), which means she has three fingers and a thumb on each hand, three toes on her right foot and four toes on her left.
Katie Boulter headlines a sizeable British contingent aiming to fight their way into the main draw as qualifying gets underway in Melbourne on Monday January 12.
Cam Norrie enjoyed an excellent end to the season after reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and third round at the US Open. He was a finalist at the Moselle Open and then upset world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz at the Paris Masters.
Jacob Fearnley caused an upset on his Australian Open debut last year, beating Nick Kyrgios in the first round.
The Scot reached the third round before going on to break the top 50 in June.
Jack Draper recently announced that he has withdrawn from the Australian Open due to injury.
Draper, ranked 10th in the world, said in a video on X on Boxing Day: "Unfortunately, me and my team have decided not to head out to Australia this year.
"It's a really, really tough decision, obviously [with] Australia being a Grand Slam, it's one of the biggest tournaments in our sport.
"However, I've had this injury for a long time, I'm at the very end stages of the process and to step back on court into best-of-five-set tennis so soon just doesn't seem like a smart decision right now for me and my tennis."
What's the Australian Open prize money?
The total prize money for the Australian Open has increased by 16 per cent on last year and the singles winners of this year's tournament will go home with a A$4.15m (about £2.68m) cheque - a 19 per cent increase on last year.
Full 2025 prize money breakdown:
Champion: A$4,150,000
Runner-up: A$2,150,000
Semi-finalists: A$1,250,000
Quarter-finalists: A$750,000
Fourth round: A$480,000
Third round: A$327,750
Second round: A$225,000
First round: A$150,000
Qualifying
Third round: $83,500
Second round: $57,000
First round: $40,500
Did you know?
In the Open Era, Virginia Wade is the only British player to have won either a women's or men's singles title at the Australian Open in 1972.
Andy Murray has come closest on the men's side, reaching the final five times in seven years, but finished runner-up to either Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic on each occasion.
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