The 2026 Australian Open is already a historic one: for the first time at a grand slam event since the start of the Open era in 1968, the top six seeds in both the men’s and women’s singles have all made it to the quarter-finals.
A lack of upsets through the first four rounds of both tournaments, as well as an abundance of straight-sets victories for the top players, has meant there has been a shortage of drama so far. But it does result in two blockbuster quarter-final line-ups.
Men’s
- [1] Carlos Alcaraz v Alex de Minaur [6]
- [3] Alexander Zverev v Learner Tien [25]
- [5] Lorenzo Musetti v Novak Djokovic [4]
- [8] Ben Shelton v Jannik Sinner [2]
Women’s
- [1] Aryna Sabalenka vs Iva Jovic [29]
- [3] Coco Gauff vs Elina Svitolina [12]
- [4] Amanda Anisimova vs Jessica Pegula [6]
- [2] Iga Swiatek vs Elena Rybakina [5]
In terms of seeding, the outliers in the last eight of both tournaments are two talented American youngsters in the 20-year-old Learner Tien and the 18-year-old Iva Jovic, as well as Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, a player who, since returning to the sport as a mother a few years ago, has routinely demonstrated how she raises her game at the grand slam level.
Across the board, however, the big names have delivered.
This is not particularly surprising on the women’s side, even if the women’s draw is historically more prone to upsets due to the shorter best-of-three format. Instead, it continues the defining theme of last season, a year where there were four different major champions in Madison Keys, Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, a two-time runner-up in Amanda Anisimova, while Elena Rybakina won the year-end WTA Finals.
Before the Australian Open, it was only the defending champion Keys who was not considered to be among the favourites, given her lack of matches after the US Open. Even though she was “proud” of her run to the fourth round, she has lacked the consistency of Jessica Pegula, who won their all-American clash to return to the quarter-finals and solidify her position as one of the most reliable first-week performers at the grand slam level.
There will still be many players outside of the top-10 who could have outperformed their seeding. Naomi Osaka would have been a dangerous opponent for Swiatek had the two-time Australian Open champion not been forced to withdraw due to an abdominal injury. When the gathering force of Victoria Mboko or the tricky Karolina Muchova reached the fourth round, they ran into opponents like Sabalenka and Gauff, who simply raised their level.
On the men’s side, meanwhile, there appears to have finally been a reaction to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s dominance. At least for now.
Take last year’s Wimbledon, where four of the men’s top-10 were knocked out in the first round and half of the top-16 seeds were gone by the second round. After what Alcaraz and Sinner produced at Roland Garros the month before, it felt inevitable that they would meet again in the Wimbledon final. Players began to tumble from the draw from the offset.
By the start of 2026, Alcaraz and Sinner had won eight grand slam titles in a row and pulled even further away from the rest of the field. With the exception of Novak Djokovic, who reached all four grand slam semi-finals in a row at the age of 38, the lack of another serious contender was damning for the rest of the top-10 and beyond. In Melbourne, only one top-10 player fell before the second week and that came as Felix Auger-Aliassime retired after struggling with cramps in the first round.
The tight grip Alcaraz and Sinner hold over the men’s side could have led to many players giving up the fight. Instead, there has been a response. Both Alex de Minaur and Ben Shelton used the same phrase of “locked in” to describe their performances and mindset through to the quarter-finals.
“Mentally I’m a lot more focused,” said Shelton after he defeated Casper Ruud to set up a quarter-final clash with Sinner, booking a rematch from last year’s semi-finals. “I made sure I was ready to go from the first point till the last,” De Minaur said as he breezed past 10th seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets, after losing from 2-0 up in sets to the same opponent at last year’s Roland Garros.
Fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti, who produced a stunning performance to dismiss Taylor Fritz in straight-sets, highlighted a “mentality switch” that occurred on his run to last season’s US Open semi-finals, making him believe that he could be as aggressive and competitive on hard courts as his favoured clay.
Even Djokovic has been dialled in from the start, having yet to drop a set before his fourth-round opponent Jakub Mensik withdrew to hand the 38-year-old a walkover into the quarter-finals. Djokovic previously highlighted the importance of ensuring he has enough energy in the tank for when he needs to face Alcaraz or Sinner in the semi-finals of a grand slam.
Like with his younger competitors, efficiency has been key to reaching this stage.
