(Paris) The Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, world N.1, and the Serbian Novak Djokovic, N.3, in search of a 23 at Roland-Garrose Grand Slam title, are placed in the same half of the table and will not be able to face each other before the semi-finals, according to the draw made on Thursday.
The other semi-final could oppose Russian Daniil Medvedev (N.2) and last year’s finalist, Norwegian Casper Ruud (N.4).
Defending champion and 14-time winner Rafael Nadal withdrew before the start of the tournament, insufficiently recovered from a muscle injury to his hip contracted in the 2e Australian Open tour in January.
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Wawrinka, who is in the final season of his career, won in 4 hours and 33 minutes in a five-set thriller against Arthur Gea (France, ATP 198) in the second round of the Aus Open. This fight is the longest fight in slam so far.
This match marked the 49th five-setter match of Stan’s career in Grand Slam tournaments; He surpassed Roger Federer (48) and became the sole owner of the Open Era record in this indicator.
Since the introduction of the 128-player draw across the four Grand Slams in 1987, Wawrinka became the oldest player to achieve multiple wins at a single major, at 40 years and 296 days.
Stan started AO-2026 with a victory over Laszlo Gyore. His next opponent will be world number 9 Taylor Fritz.
Australian Open 2026. 1/32 final
Arthur Hea (France) [Q] – Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) [WC] – 6:4, 3:6, 6:3, 5:7, 6:7 (3:10)
Besides Cilic and Wawrinka, 38-year-old Novak Djokovic from Serbia also qualified for the 1/16 final at the Aus Open on January 22. After the end of the match day, Novak published a post in his story with the match result and Marin and Stan’s results and signed:
“There is no coup without the old man” translated from Serbian means: “There is no coup without the old man.”
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Bartunkova and Bencic played each other for the first time.
Belinda lost her first match of 2026. She started the season in the United Cup, where she defeated Iga Swiatek and Jasmine Paolini, among others.
19-year-old Nicola started the Aus Open with the qualifiers. In the first round of the main draw, Bartunkova will compete with Elise Merets after eliminating Daria Kasatkina.
For the first time in her career, Bartunkova beat a tennis player in the top 10 of the WTA rankings. This was also the first defeat of a tennis player ranked in the top 10 at the Australian Open.
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(Melbourne) Denis Shapovalov lost sharply 6-4, 6-3 and 6-2 to Marin Cilic in the second round of the Australian Open tennis tournament on Thursday.
Shapovalov, the 21e seeded in the tournament, fell to the Croatian, who was finalist at Melbourne Park in 2018, thus leveling the record between the two tennis players at 3-3 in their careers.
As for Cilic, who is 37 years old, he reached the third round of the first major tournament of the season for the first time since 2022. He will face the winner of the duel between the Spaniard Jaume Munar and the Norwegian Casper Ruud, 12e seeded.
The Canadian did not seem to be in his right mood during his match against Cilic. He was notably limited to 12 winning shots, committed 42 unforced errors, and seven double faults during their match.
Moreover, Shapovalov was very generous towards his opponent, 70e world racket. He conceded six breaks in 12 chances to Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open winner, and converted only two of his six break points.
For the 26-year-old Ontarian, it was a fourth defeat in his last five matches.
There is therefore only one representative of the maple leaf left in the singles tables of the Australian Open: Victoria Mboko.
The Ontarian, the 17e seeded, will face the Danish Clara Tauson, 14e seeded, in the third round in the evening on Thursday.
Her compatriot, the Ontarian Gabriela Dabrowski, and her Brazilian playing partner, Luisa Stefani, will play their second round doubles match against the French Elsa Jacquemot and the Colombian Emiliana Arango, in the evening.
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