Brandon Nakashima has hired former ATP no. 1 doubles player Rick Leach as his new coach.
The word is Wawinka and Kyrgios are both candidates for one final AO wildcard.
Aryna Sabalenka, who played three exhibitions in December, is going to reduce her schedule in 2026: “The season is definitely insane, and that’s not good for all of us, as you see so many players getting injured and also the balls are quite heavy, so it’s a lot, yeah, a lot of struggle for all of us. But what Serena did, the rules were different. Right now, like last season, by the end of the season, because I didn’t play enough of 500 events, they fine us with points, me and Iga. So then it’s, like, okay if you play seven events, even if you win – okay, if you win all of them, then maybe it’s not a big deal. But you cannot predict that I’m going to play seven events, I’m going to win them all, and that’s it. The rules are quite tricky with mandatory events, but I’m still doing that, like, I’m skipping couple events in order to protect my body, because I struggled a lot last season. Even though the results were really consistent, but some of the tournaments I had been playing completely sick or I’ve been really exhausted from overplaying. So this season we will try to manage it a little bit better, even though they are going to fine me by the end of the season. But it’s tricky to do that. You cannot skip like 1000 event. It’s really tricky, and I think that’s insane what they do. I think they just follow their interests, but they’re not focusing on protecting all of us.”
Tennis Kenya awarded a wildcard to novice or beginner Egyptian player Hajar Abdelkader at the ITF W35 in Nairobi. She won three points in the match. No word on if there will investigations into betting patterns.
Pam Shriver, Brad Gilbert, Darren Cahill and Rennae Stubbs will not be part of ESPN’s 2026 Australian Open TV coverage.
If Novak Djokovic wins the AO 2026, he will become the oldest AO champion ever and also the oldest Grand slam champion ever. Remember, he is also the youngest Australian Open champion in the 21st century.
Stefanos Tsitsipas is changing things up for the new season: “Traditional autographs? Out. Pre-signed postcards? In.”
Sabalenka and Madison Keys will face each other in the Brisbane quarterfinals. It’s a rematch of the 2025 Australian Open final, which Keys won. Aryna leads the head to head 5-2. The last time they played was at Indian Wells last year, where Aryna won 60 61.
AO · Aryna Sabalenka · Brandon Nakashima · Novak Djokovic
