2026 Australian Open
The year's first major commences in Melbourne, Australia, on Sunday, Jan. 18. The time difference meaning that play starts Saturday evening in primetime when many of us are watching football. As in the 2024 and 2025 editions, the tournament runs 15 days, from Sunday to Sunday.
This is ESPN’s 42nd annual presentation of the Australian Open, representing its longest uninterrupted professional sports programming relationship. ESPN has held the rights to the event since 1984 but called the 2021-23 editions from Connecticut with only token personnel (usually their commentators who are also coaches) on site.
The tournament marks ESPN's first tennis coverage since the retirement of Cliff Drysdale, who first appeared on ESPN in the first week of the network's existence in 1979 and signed off at the 2025 US Open. Further details on talent changes can be found in the commentators section below.
Schedule
Live "first ball to last ball" coverage across all 16 courts is available online. The availability of all courts on streaming is not new, but this marks the second year with all courts on behind a paywall. Matches on the three main courts (Rod Laver, Margaret Court and John Cain arenas) were available to ESPN Unlimited subscribers with all other matches on ESPN+. That coverage is usually blocked as 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
ESPN+ also has live coverage of the qualifying tournament and charity matches during the weekend preceding the tournament.
All times are U.S. EST (i.e., New York time), which is 16 hours behind Melbourne time.
| Day | U.S. evening | Melbourne date | Singles round | ESPN | ESPN2 | ESPN Deportes | Encore presentations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saturday | Sunday, Jan. 18 | First | 10 p.m.-7 a.m. | 7:45 p.m.-7 a.m. | ESPN2, 7-10 a.m. | |
| 2 | Sunday | Monday, Jan. 19 | First | 7 p.m.-7 a.m. | 7 p.m.-8 a.m. | ESPN2, 8-11 a.m. | |
| 3 | Monday | Tuesday, Jan. 20 | First | 11:15 p.m.-7 a.m. | 11 p.m.-8 a.m. | ESPN2, 12-3 p.m. | |
| 4 | Tuesday | Wednesday, Jan. 21 | Second | 9 p.m.-7 a.m. | 7 p.m.-8 a.m. | ESPN2, 2-5 p.m. | |
| 5 | Wednesday | Thursday, Jan. 22 | Second | 9 p.m.-7 a.m. | 12-8 a.m. | ESPN2, 2-5 p.m. | |
| 6 | Thursday | Friday, Jan. 23 | Third | 9 p.m.-7 a.m. | 7:30 p.m.-8 a.m. | ESPN2, 2-5 p.m. | |
| 7 | Friday | Saturday, Jan. 24 | Third | 9 p.m.-7 a.m. | 7:30 p.m.-7:55 a.m. | ESPN2, 7-10 a.m. | |
| 8 | Saturday | Sunday, Jan. 25 | Round of 16 | 8 p.m.-7 a.m. | 11 p.m.-7:55 a.m. | ESPN2, 7:30-10:30 a.m.; ABC, 4-5 p.m. | |
| 9 | Sunday | Monday, Jan. 26 | Round of 16 | 8 p.m.-7 a.m. | 7:30 p.m.-8 a.m. | ESPN2, 12-3 p.m. | |
| 10 | Monday | Tuesday, Jan. 27 | Quarterfinals | 3-7 a.m. | 9 p.m.-1 a.m. | 7:30 p.m.-1 a.m.
3-8:30 a.m. |
ESPN2, 1-4 p.m. |
| 11 | Tuesday | Wednesday, Jan. 28 | Quarterfinals | 3-7 a.m. | 9 p.m.-1 a.m. | 7:30 p.m.-1 a.m.
3-8:30 a.m. |
ESPN2, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. |
| 12 | Wednesday | Thursday, Jan. 29 | Women's semifinals | 3:30-7:30 a.m. | 3:25-7 a.m. | ESPN2, 3-6 p.m. | |
| 13 | Thursday | Friday, Jan. 30 | Men's semifinals | 10 p.m.-1 a.m.
3:30-6 a.m. |
10:25 p.m.-2 a.m.
3:25-7 a.m. |
ESPN2, 2-5 p.m. | |
| 14 | Friday | Saturday, Jan. 31 | Women's final | 3-5:30 a.m. | 3-6 a.m. | ESPN2, 9 a.m.-12 p.m.; ABC, 12-1 p.m. | |
| 15 | Saturday | Sunday, Feb. 1 | Men's final | 3-6:30 a.m. | 3-7:30 a.m. | ESPN2, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. |
Commentators
In addition to Cliff Drysdale's retirement last fall after 46 years at ESPN, the network also discontinued the services of Pam Shriver and Brad Gilbert, who had been on their tennis team since 1990 and 2005 respectively. Shriver posted on X that she was prepared to continue but was told it was time to streamline the coverage. Darren Cahill and Rennae Stubbs did not appear on this tournament but had not ruled out returning in the future.
Following the departures of Drysdale and Shriver, Chris McKendry volunteered to move to play-by-play. Katie George and Malika Andrews assumed host responsibilities. George had previously appeared at the US Open while the tournament marked Andrews' ESPN tennis debut.
Dates in parentheses indicate the year each person joined ESPN's tennis contingent. These are generally taken from the ESPN press release, except for Goodall and Stubbs which do not have dates listed.
Hosts: Katie George (2025), Malika Andrews (2026).
Play-by-play: Chris Fowler (lead; 2003), Jason Goodall (2015), Patrick McEnroe (1995), Chris McKendry (on team since 2016 but as host until 2025), Mike Monaco (2024). (Mary Joe Fernandez has also appeared in this capacity before.)
Analysts: John McEnroe (men's lead, 2009); James Blake (2020), Chris Eubanks (2024), Mary Joe Fernandez (2000), Sam Querrey (2025), Coco Vandeweghe (2024) and Caroline Wozniacki.
Reporter: Kris Budden (2024).
Conventions
The color-coded schedule graphics below are based on an average set length of 40 minutes; a best-of-three match is blocked at an hour and 40 minutes while a best-of-five match is 2:45, based on the likelihood of multiple sets if each set is a coin flip. Suspended matches are prorated based on the score when they are stopped.
Each match's position on the draw is indicated by a number in double square brackets. Each pair of matches with the same number meets in the next round; these numbers start with 1 at the top of the draw and proceed down the list. For example, there are 32 second-round matches, so the last pair of first-round matches is marked with 32.
In the text listing of commentators, each match is numbered sequentially when it first appears. Brief updates on other matches are indented. Angle brackets indicate split-screen coverage.
If there is only a textual listing of the show-court schedule, this means I haven't made the graphic yet and it's coming. :)
Draw
The draw was made on Thursday, Jan. 15, at 2:30 p.m. local time, which is 10:30 p.m. Eastern the night before.
Men's singles draw
| Quarter | Top seeds in top half | Top seeds in bottom half | Other Americans | Other former top-5 players or major champions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top | #1 Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) | |||
| Second | #3 Djokovic or #4 Zverev | |||
| Third | #3 Djokovic or #4 Zverev | |||
| Bottom | #2 Jannik Sinner (Italy) |
*Players with asterisks open tournament on Sunday
Women's singles draw
| Quarter | Top seeds in top half | Top seeds in bottom half | Other Americans | Other former top-5 players or major champions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top | #1 Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) | |||
| Second | #3 Gauff or #4 Anisimova | |||
| Third | #3 Gauff or #4 Anisimova | |||
| Bottom | #2 Iga Swiatek (Poland) |
*Players with asterisks open tournament on Sunday
Chaos theory
The rules for filling spaces created by withdrawing players are as follows.
- If a seeded player withdraws before the draw, all lower seeds slide up one line.and the top unseeded player becomes the #32 seed. One of the players who lost in the final round of qualifying becomes a "lucky loser" and receives a spot in the main draw.
- If an unseeded player withdraws, a lucky loser gets their spot in the draw.
- If a top-four seed withdraws after the draw but before the initial order of play is released, the #5 seed fills that opening, while the #17 seed takes the #5 seed's place. The top unseeded player becomes a #33 seed and goes in the spot vacated by the #17 seed, and that unseeded player's original place is taken by the lucky loser. If a player seeded 5-16 withdraws, the #17 seed and #33 seeds cascade up as described previously with the lucky loser replacing the #33 seed.
- Once the order of play for the first day is released, any player who withdraws before the first ball of their match is simply replaced by a lucky loser.
- A player who has started their first match of the tournament and withdraws is not replaced: their opponent advances.