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Welcome to the Australian Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
On Day 5, the Australian Open came to life in a mad few hours, two top players outlined the anatomy of an easy win, and a new proposal to fix tennis emerged.
By all accounts, the first four days of the 2026 Australian Open have been great, but not spectacular. Record crowds have been treated to seeds holding, rising stars doing their countries proud, some outrageous shots and one stunning outfit.
By around 7 p.m. on Day 5, it looked like the tournament was in for more of the same. Then Stan Wawrinka hit a backhand down the line to win his fourth set against Arthur Géa (see more of that below). In doing so, he appeared to flick a switch. Enough drama, remarkable results and thrilling matches to fill four days all happened at once.
It was almost impossible to keep up:
On Court 7, two of Czechia’s most promising talents were duking it out in a match worthy of a major final. Tereza Valentová, 18 years old, and Linda Fruhvirtová, 20, delivered a three-set epic. Valentova surged to a lead in the third set, relinquished it, and then sprinted to the finish line 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.
On Margaret Court Arena, Naomi Osaka (No. 16 seed) and Sorana Cîrstea delivered a close three-setter. After coming through a medical timeout, Osaka won 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 …
… But that was not the end of the drama. After a frosty handshake, Cîrstea told Osaka she did not know fair play. In her on-court interview, Osaka said “a lot of come ons” that Cîrstea “was angry about” got her through the match. More on that below…
On ANZ Arena, another teenage Czech, Nikola Bartůňková, was knocking out Belinda Bencic (10) 6-3, 0-6, 6-4. Another Czech, qualifier Bartůňková plays like a combination of Karolína Muchová and Mirra Andreeva, and has now come back from losing the second set 6-0 to win in two consecutive matches.
And on Kia Arena, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis, the Australian doubles pair who won the men’s title in 2022 but have since both struggled with injury, were treating the crowd to a thrillride / heart-stopper in equal measure. In the end, they walked off defeated, losing to Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4).
In just a few hours, drama arrived in Melbourne. The tournament had missed it. May there be more.
— James Hansen
The tennis handshake is normally a perfunctory recognition of a good match, but it can occasionally bring simmering tensions from the action that preceded it to the boil.
So it was Thursday night, when Sorana Cîrstea expressed her frustration with Naomi Osaka’s saying “Come on” to herself between the Romanian’s first and second serves, as Osaka often does in her matches.
Cîrstea had complained to the umpire about it when serving down 4-2, 30-30 in the final set, and made her feelings clear to Osaka at the net, telling her opponent that she did not know fair play. Osaka appeared nonplussed by the complaint, and in her on-court interview, expressed confusion that Cîrstea had not raised the issue with her during the match.
When asked what it took to beat Cîrstea, who was playing her final Australian Open in her last year on the tour at age 35, Osaka said: “Apparently a lot of ‘Come ons’ that she was angry about, but whatever.”
Osaka added that Cîrstea is “a great player. I think this was her last Australian Open so, sorry she was mad about it, but…”
When asked whether it had been the pumping herself up between Cîrstea’s serves that had irritated her opponent, Osaka said: “I think so, but she could have asked me.” Osaka appeared to be fighting back tears as she said: “I’m sorry.”
In her news conference later, Osaka apologized for what she had said at the start of her on-court interview. “I think the first couple things that I said on the court were disrespectful. I don’t like disrespecting people. That’s not what I do,” she said.
She explained, though, that: “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.”
Having not been in this sort of situation previously, Osaka said she didn’t know if the normal thing to do was to leave it on the court or talk it through with Cîrstea.
Cîrstea was keen to play down the incident in her own news conference. She repeatedly said she didn’t want to talk about it, and said: “No, there was no drama. It was just a five-second exchange between two players that have been on a tour for a long time. It stays between us.”
Osaka will now play unseeded home favorite Maddison Inglis in the third round Saturday, as she looks to win her third Australian Open to go with the 2019 and 2021 titles.
— Charlie Eccleshare
Tennis is run by seven different organizations, all of which agree that the season needs to be shorter, with the top players at the same tournaments more often.
Those organizations, the four Grand Slams, the WTA and ATP Tours and World Tennis, disagree on how exactly that should happen.
Thursday, an eighth organization trying to get the Slams and tours to act quicker came up with a proposal of its own — that looks remarkably familiar.
The Professional Tennis Tennis Players Association, which last month reached a settlement with Tennis Australia in its antitrust suit against most of tennis’ governing bodies, has sent out a request for investment proposals to financial institutions, designed to help support a new structure for the existing tennis landscape.
The business plan, reviewed by The Athletic and first reported by The Telegraph, includes:
A three-tiered system of tournaments, topped by the “Pinnacle Tour.”
Fewer mandatory events for players
Guaranteed minimum salaries of between $300,000 and $1 million, depending on ranking.
Equal prize money and compensation for men and women.
At various points the past two years, the Grand Slams and the ATP and WTA have presented each other with versions of a similar structure, only to run into the inertia that largely constrains change in professional tennis.
The PTPA believes it can avoid that inertia, but it remains in something of a holding pattern. Despite Tennis Australia’s settlement, which will help the PTPA obtain information useful to its case against the other organizations, the ATP, WTA, Wimbledon and the French and U.S. Opens still want the lawsuit to be dismissed, or taken to arbitration.
— Matt Futterman
It started slowly.
James Duckworth, the Australian wild card, cracked a couple of aces, moved Jannik Sinner around a little bit, cut a nice volley winner to end a long rally. All that got him a hold, 1-1, in the first set.
At 1-2, 10 minutes into the match, the free points dried up.
Duckworth defended well on a break point, but could do nothing about an inside-out backhand winner from the defending champion. It went unreturned not because of anything Duckworth did wrong, but because Sinner decided to end the point on that shot, and not any of the others.
Duckworth did not win another game in the first set, which ended in 26 minutes.
The match regained the illusion of tension in the second set. Duckworth ground out a couple service holds. He rescued the 2-2 game from 0-40 down, hammering a backhand winner down the open line on the third break point. In many matches, this would lead to further success. In this one, it merely delayed Sinner’s ascendance until the next Duckworth service game.
This is instructive: Sinner, the ATP’s premier blowout artist in 2026, understands that an opponent’s momentum must be snuffed out the moment it arrives.
Novak Djokovic, who defeated Francesco Maestrelli 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 earlier in the day, understands this too. Maestrelli had more firepower than Duckworth and played like it, ripping every ball he could and actually recording an impressive win percentage on Djokovic’s second serve. These days Djokovic tends to hit two first serves, so Maestrelli’s success on 59% of those points is rare as a diamond.
What is also instructive, though, is that Djokovic lost as few games as Sinner. Djokovic ensured that the match was never close enough for Maestrelli to crack open an important point with a big return – important points don’t really exist in blowouts – and that he could answer with a shot twice as devastating.
The blowout is not for everybody. It lacks competitive tension of any magnitude. Any cheers for the loser are usually out of pity. But an inarguable level of mastery is required to execute one properly, which is difficult not to admire. For those more inclined to watch the top player attain victory in a manner sweaty and complicated enough to disguise its inevitability, Carlos Alcaraz takes to Rod Laver Arena against Corentin Moutet tomorrow, not before 9:30 pm ET.
— Owen Lewis
Defending champion Madison Keys (9) brushed aside another brief scare, this time from Ashlyn Krueger. Keys came from 5-2 down in the second set to win 6-1, 7-5.
Amanda Anisimova (4) came through a 6-1, 6-4 win over Kateřina Siniaková that was much closer than the scoreline would appear.
Ben Shelton (8) made light work of another home hope, Dane Sweeny, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
More easy wins for seeds: Iga Świątek (2) beat Marie Bouzková 6-2, 6-3, and Elena Rybakina (5) took down Varvara Gracheva 7-5, 6-2.
Stan Wawrinka. Down-the-line backhand. To win a set. There is nothing else to say.
Stan Wawrinka does not want this last Australian Open to end. The 40-year-old won a five-set thriller against Arthur Géa, who is almost half his age, to keep the show rolling.
Frances Tiafoe says that his next tennis reset is for real. Whether it is or not is entirely up to him.
After her second-round exit to Anastasia Potapova, Emma Raducanu discussed her game and her confusion at what she wants to do on the court right now.
️ After calling on the tennis world to act regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Oleksandra Oliynykova directly criticized world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and other stars. Sabalenka said she wanted peace in response.
Women’s singles: Victoria Mboko (17) vs. Clara Tauson (14)
7 p.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+
Mboko, the 19-year-old who won her debut WTA 1000 title last year at the Canadian Open, her home event, is capable of shapeshifting her style to confound opponents. Tauson, 23, has a sneakily crafty slice, but anchors her points around her powerful serve and singeing groundstrokes. One of the first popcorn matches of the tournament.
Men’s singles: Carlos Alcaraz (1) vs. Corentin Moutet (32)
Not before 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+
Expect chaos. Expect highlight reels on highlight reels. Expect underarm serves. Expect drop shots. And expect Alcaraz’s superior weight of shot in every department to win out, despite Moutet’s appetite for and reliable execution of the spectacular.
Women’s singles: Iva Jović (29) vs. Jasmine Paolini (7)
1 a.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+
Jović, another rising teenage talent, makes the court squeak with her quickness and footwork; once she gets to the ball, she is capable of detonating it like few on tour. Paolini has a ton of Grand Slam experience to lean on and her own explosiveness to bring to bear. Another potential cracker.
Men’s singles: Frances Tiafoe (29) vs. Alex de Minaur (6)
3 a.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+
Tiafoe says he loves the brightest lights in tennis. At the Australian Open, there is no bigger assignment than taking on the highest-ranked Australian on Rod Laver Arena at night. The contrast between de Minaur’s fleet-footed counterpunching, to which he has added more aggressiveness, and Tiafoe’s all-court, spinning and skittering power should make for a spectacle.
Tell us what you noticed on the fifth day…
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Sports Business, Tennis, Women's Tennis
2026 The Athletic Media Company
Continue reading...
Welcome to the Australian Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
On Day 5, the Australian Open came to life in a mad few hours, two top players outlined the anatomy of an easy win, and a new proposal to fix tennis emerged.
How did the Australian Open come to life?
By all accounts, the first four days of the 2026 Australian Open have been great, but not spectacular. Record crowds have been treated to seeds holding, rising stars doing their countries proud, some outrageous shots and one stunning outfit.
By around 7 p.m. on Day 5, it looked like the tournament was in for more of the same. Then Stan Wawrinka hit a backhand down the line to win his fourth set against Arthur Géa (see more of that below). In doing so, he appeared to flick a switch. Enough drama, remarkable results and thrilling matches to fill four days all happened at once.
It was almost impossible to keep up:
On Court 7, two of Czechia’s most promising talents were duking it out in a match worthy of a major final. Tereza Valentová, 18 years old, and Linda Fruhvirtová, 20, delivered a three-set epic. Valentova surged to a lead in the third set, relinquished it, and then sprinted to the finish line 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.
On Margaret Court Arena, Naomi Osaka (No. 16 seed) and Sorana Cîrstea delivered a close three-setter. After coming through a medical timeout, Osaka won 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 …
… But that was not the end of the drama. After a frosty handshake, Cîrstea told Osaka she did not know fair play. In her on-court interview, Osaka said “a lot of come ons” that Cîrstea “was angry about” got her through the match. More on that below…
On ANZ Arena, another teenage Czech, Nikola Bartůňková, was knocking out Belinda Bencic (10) 6-3, 0-6, 6-4. Another Czech, qualifier Bartůňková plays like a combination of Karolína Muchová and Mirra Andreeva, and has now come back from losing the second set 6-0 to win in two consecutive matches.
And on Kia Arena, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis, the Australian doubles pair who won the men’s title in 2022 but have since both struggled with injury, were treating the crowd to a thrillride / heart-stopper in equal measure. In the end, they walked off defeated, losing to Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4).
In just a few hours, drama arrived in Melbourne. The tournament had missed it. May there be more.
— James Hansen
What happened during Osaka and Cîrstea’s handshake?
The tennis handshake is normally a perfunctory recognition of a good match, but it can occasionally bring simmering tensions from the action that preceded it to the boil.
So it was Thursday night, when Sorana Cîrstea expressed her frustration with Naomi Osaka’s saying “Come on” to herself between the Romanian’s first and second serves, as Osaka often does in her matches.
Cîrstea had complained to the umpire about it when serving down 4-2, 30-30 in the final set, and made her feelings clear to Osaka at the net, telling her opponent that she did not know fair play. Osaka appeared nonplussed by the complaint, and in her on-court interview, expressed confusion that Cîrstea had not raised the issue with her during the match.
When asked what it took to beat Cîrstea, who was playing her final Australian Open in her last year on the tour at age 35, Osaka said: “Apparently a lot of ‘Come ons’ that she was angry about, but whatever.”
Osaka added that Cîrstea is “a great player. I think this was her last Australian Open so, sorry she was mad about it, but…”
When asked whether it had been the pumping herself up between Cîrstea’s serves that had irritated her opponent, Osaka said: “I think so, but she could have asked me.” Osaka appeared to be fighting back tears as she said: “I’m sorry.”
In her news conference later, Osaka apologized for what she had said at the start of her on-court interview. “I think the first couple things that I said on the court were disrespectful. I don’t like disrespecting people. That’s not what I do,” she said.
She explained, though, that: “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.”
Having not been in this sort of situation previously, Osaka said she didn’t know if the normal thing to do was to leave it on the court or talk it through with Cîrstea.
Cîrstea was keen to play down the incident in her own news conference. She repeatedly said she didn’t want to talk about it, and said: “No, there was no drama. It was just a five-second exchange between two players that have been on a tour for a long time. It stays between us.”
Osaka will now play unseeded home favorite Maddison Inglis in the third round Saturday, as she looks to win her third Australian Open to go with the 2019 and 2021 titles.
— Charlie Eccleshare
What is the new plan to ‘fix tennis’?
Tennis is run by seven different organizations, all of which agree that the season needs to be shorter, with the top players at the same tournaments more often.
Those organizations, the four Grand Slams, the WTA and ATP Tours and World Tennis, disagree on how exactly that should happen.
Thursday, an eighth organization trying to get the Slams and tours to act quicker came up with a proposal of its own — that looks remarkably familiar.
The Professional Tennis Tennis Players Association, which last month reached a settlement with Tennis Australia in its antitrust suit against most of tennis’ governing bodies, has sent out a request for investment proposals to financial institutions, designed to help support a new structure for the existing tennis landscape.
The business plan, reviewed by The Athletic and first reported by The Telegraph, includes:
A three-tiered system of tournaments, topped by the “Pinnacle Tour.”
Fewer mandatory events for players
Guaranteed minimum salaries of between $300,000 and $1 million, depending on ranking.
Equal prize money and compensation for men and women.
At various points the past two years, the Grand Slams and the ATP and WTA have presented each other with versions of a similar structure, only to run into the inertia that largely constrains change in professional tennis.
The PTPA believes it can avoid that inertia, but it remains in something of a holding pattern. Despite Tennis Australia’s settlement, which will help the PTPA obtain information useful to its case against the other organizations, the ATP, WTA, Wimbledon and the French and U.S. Opens still want the lawsuit to be dismissed, or taken to arbitration.
— Matt Futterman
How did two elite players reveal the anatomy of a thrashing?
It started slowly.
James Duckworth, the Australian wild card, cracked a couple of aces, moved Jannik Sinner around a little bit, cut a nice volley winner to end a long rally. All that got him a hold, 1-1, in the first set.
At 1-2, 10 minutes into the match, the free points dried up.
Duckworth defended well on a break point, but could do nothing about an inside-out backhand winner from the defending champion. It went unreturned not because of anything Duckworth did wrong, but because Sinner decided to end the point on that shot, and not any of the others.
Duckworth did not win another game in the first set, which ended in 26 minutes.
The match regained the illusion of tension in the second set. Duckworth ground out a couple service holds. He rescued the 2-2 game from 0-40 down, hammering a backhand winner down the open line on the third break point. In many matches, this would lead to further success. In this one, it merely delayed Sinner’s ascendance until the next Duckworth service game.
This is instructive: Sinner, the ATP’s premier blowout artist in 2026, understands that an opponent’s momentum must be snuffed out the moment it arrives.
Novak Djokovic, who defeated Francesco Maestrelli 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 earlier in the day, understands this too. Maestrelli had more firepower than Duckworth and played like it, ripping every ball he could and actually recording an impressive win percentage on Djokovic’s second serve. These days Djokovic tends to hit two first serves, so Maestrelli’s success on 59% of those points is rare as a diamond.
What is also instructive, though, is that Djokovic lost as few games as Sinner. Djokovic ensured that the match was never close enough for Maestrelli to crack open an important point with a big return – important points don’t really exist in blowouts – and that he could answer with a shot twice as devastating.
The blowout is not for everybody. It lacks competitive tension of any magnitude. Any cheers for the loser are usually out of pity. But an inarguable level of mastery is required to execute one properly, which is difficult not to admire. For those more inclined to watch the top player attain victory in a manner sweaty and complicated enough to disguise its inevitability, Carlos Alcaraz takes to Rod Laver Arena against Corentin Moutet tomorrow, not before 9:30 pm ET.
— Owen Lewis
Other notable results on Day 5:
Defending champion Madison Keys (9) brushed aside another brief scare, this time from Ashlyn Krueger. Keys came from 5-2 down in the second set to win 6-1, 7-5.
Amanda Anisimova (4) came through a 6-1, 6-4 win over Kateřina Siniaková that was much closer than the scoreline would appear.
Ben Shelton (8) made light work of another home hope, Dane Sweeny, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
More easy wins for seeds: Iga Świątek (2) beat Marie Bouzková 6-2, 6-3, and Elena Rybakina (5) took down Varvara Gracheva 7-5, 6-2.
Shot of the day
Stan Wawrinka. Down-the-line backhand. To win a set. There is nothing else to say.
Drop Shots
Stan Wawrinka does not want this last Australian Open to end. The 40-year-old won a five-set thriller against Arthur Géa, who is almost half his age, to keep the show rolling.
Frances Tiafoe says that his next tennis reset is for real. Whether it is or not is entirely up to him.
After her second-round exit to Anastasia Potapova, Emma Raducanu discussed her game and her confusion at what she wants to do on the court right now.️ After calling on the tennis world to act regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Oleksandra Oliynykova directly criticized world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and other stars. Sabalenka said she wanted peace in response.
Up next: Third round begins
Women’s singles: Victoria Mboko (17) vs. Clara Tauson (14)
7 p.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+
Mboko, the 19-year-old who won her debut WTA 1000 title last year at the Canadian Open, her home event, is capable of shapeshifting her style to confound opponents. Tauson, 23, has a sneakily crafty slice, but anchors her points around her powerful serve and singeing groundstrokes. One of the first popcorn matches of the tournament.
Men’s singles: Carlos Alcaraz (1) vs. Corentin Moutet (32)
Not before 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+
Expect chaos. Expect highlight reels on highlight reels. Expect underarm serves. Expect drop shots. And expect Alcaraz’s superior weight of shot in every department to win out, despite Moutet’s appetite for and reliable execution of the spectacular.
Women’s singles: Iva Jović (29) vs. Jasmine Paolini (7)
1 a.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+
Jović, another rising teenage talent, makes the court squeak with her quickness and footwork; once she gets to the ball, she is capable of detonating it like few on tour. Paolini has a ton of Grand Slam experience to lean on and her own explosiveness to bring to bear. Another potential cracker.
Men’s singles: Frances Tiafoe (29) vs. Alex de Minaur (6)
3 a.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+
Tiafoe says he loves the brightest lights in tennis. At the Australian Open, there is no bigger assignment than taking on the highest-ranked Australian on Rod Laver Arena at night. The contrast between de Minaur’s fleet-footed counterpunching, to which he has added more aggressiveness, and Tiafoe’s all-court, spinning and skittering power should make for a spectacle.
Australian Open men’s draw 2026
Australian Open women’s draw 2026
Tell us what you noticed on the fifth day…
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Sports Business, Tennis, Women's Tennis
2026 The Athletic Media Company
Continue reading...
