Title winners
Elena Rybakina claimed her revenge over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win a thrilling Australian Open final on Saturday and clinch her second Grand Slam title.
Rybakina, who went into the tournament as the fifth seed, held her nerve through the decisive moments of the third set to win 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena in two hours and 18 minutes.
The big-serving Kazakh got her revenge after the Belarusian won the 2023 final between the two in another tight three-set match.
The ice-cool Rybakina, who was born in Moscow, added her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. Sabalenka, who was up 3-0 in the final set, was again made to pay for not producing her best tennis at the decisive moments to lose a Grand Slam final like she did last year at the French Open and Australian Open, only to finish the year with the US Open trophy.
Rybakina, who switched to play under the Kazakh flag in 2018 when she was a little-known 19-year-old, for financial reasons. sealed the trophy with her sixth ace of the match.
The two finalists had faced each other 14 times earlier, with Sabalenka winning eight of them.
In the men's tournament, Carlos Alcaraz won a much-anticipated Australian Open final to become the youngest man to complete a Career Grand Slam, and in the process, ended Novak Djokovic's latest attempt to land a 25th major title.
Following a tough physical contest, Alcaraz collapsed on the court after clinching a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 victory against a disappointed Serbian, who surely must have known that he may never have a better opportunity to underline his place as the greatest player of all-time.
Thanks to his performance, Alcaraz became only the ninth man to win all four Grand Slams - the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open - and the first since Djokovic in 2016.
Actually, it was curious that Alcaraz and Djokovic ended up facing each other in the final because both of them were on the verge of crashing out of the event earlier in the tournament.
Djokovic scraped into the Australian Open semi-finals when Lorenzo Musetti retired with a thigh injury after winning the first two sets 6-4, 6-3.
Alcaraz had not lost a set going into the semi-final against Zverev, but after winning the first two sets clutched the inside of his right groin late in the third set and was moving awkwardly to indicate that he was having cramps or had sustained a more serious injury, and was allowed a medical timeout after seeking attention from the physio.
This infuriated Zverev as tournament rules allow medical timeouts for injuries but not muscle cramps, and Alcaraz went on to win the tie in five sets.
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Biggest strugglers
As of late 2025 and early 2026, Andrey Rublev, who has dropped to 14th in the world rankings, has been navigating a deep crisis involving his game, results, and mental health, with his tennis having "hit a ceiling".
Following a challenging 2024 featuring severe mental struggles and a health scare, Rublev has struggled with consistency and self-control, leading to a need for radical changes to his approach and game.
Rublev, who at 28 years old should be reaching the peak of his career, suffered disappointing defeats late last year in Shanghai and Beijing, and in the Australian Open, lost surprisingly in the third round to Francisco Cerundolo 7-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Rublev was handed a warning for abusing his bench during that match, and the Russian has faced scrutiny for on-court outbursts, with reports in November 2025 indicating that the ATP launched investigations into his mental health and conduct.
Standout moment
Naomi Osaka was handed a very frosty handshake and a telling-off from Sorana Cirstea after the Japanese ace wrapped up a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win against the Romanian in the Australian Open second round.
Asked in her on-court interview what it took to win the match against Cirstea, Osaka said: "Apparently a lot of 'come ons' that she was angry about." Osaka referred to the fact that Cirstea objected to the umpire about Osaka’s “c’mon” between first and second serves when tensions surfaced late in the third set, with Osaka leading 4-2, 30-30.
Osaka, later at the press conference, took a conciliatory tone towards the unusual incident. “I guess that emotions were very high for her. I also want to apologise. I think the first couple of things that I said on the court were disrespectful.
"I don’t like disrespecting people. That’s not what I do. If she wants to talk about it, then yeah. But when I’m pumping myself up, in my head I’m not like: ‘OK, now I’m going to distract the other person.’ It’s purely for me, so …”
Best rallies
At 38 years old, Djokovic underlined that he still has the potential to win Grand Slams, and against Jannik Sinner in the semi-final, he recovered his old impressive form, underlined by this amazing forehand winner.
Sabalenka ended up on the losing side of her three-set battle against Rybakina, but she did manage to win this epic rally from the final thanks to a diving volley in the end.
Upcoming events
After the Australian Open, most of the elite women's tennis players will head to the WTA 500 tournament, the Abu Dhabi Open, which will be played at the Zayed Sports City International Tennis Centre.
The tournament features a star-studded lineup headlined by defending champion Belinda Bencic. The event brings together top-tier talent, including Ekaterina Alexandrova, Emma Navarro and former Grand Slam champion Jelena Ostapenko.
There are also WTA events in Cluj-Napoca and Ostrava, with Emma Raducanu and Tatjana Maria the top seeds, respectively.
Most of the men's elite might take a break on the back of two hard weeks in Australia, but there will still be valuable ATP points to be won at the ATP 250 tournament at the Open Occitanie in Montpellier.
Felix Auger-Aliassime, Stan Wawrinka, Arthur Fils, Ugo Humbert, and Hubert Hurkacz are some of the confirmed names.