Australian Open 2026 LIVE updates: Swiatek, Anisimova, Djokovic, Sinner in star-studded quarters; Aussies in doubles quarters, semis action

Polish world No.2 Iga Swiatek and Kazakh world No.5 Elena Rybakina have kicked off their quarter-final match on Rod Laver Arena.

Rybakina won their most recent match in the WTA Finals late last year, but Swiatek has the lead in their head-to-head match-up 6-5.

However, the Pole said their history was not relevant for Wednesday’s match.

“It doesn’t make sense to over-analyse who won the last ones or how it has been looking,” Swiatek said.

“Every match is a different story. In every match, she’s been a tough opponent, and her tennis for sure is great. I need to be 100 per cent ready and go for it and use my experience and also the knowledge from previous matches.”

Bill Bowrey, the last amateur player to win the Australian men’s title before the start of the modern era of professional tennis, will be inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame tonight.

Bowrey was ranked as high as No.8 in his decorated career, which included winning the Australian championships at Kooyong in 1968, the year before the tournament joined the Open era.

He will be inducted at a ceremony on Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday evening, and will be joined by his wife, 13-time grand slam champion and Hall of Fame inductee Lesley Bowrey.

In a statement shared via Tennis Australia, Bowrey said: “I feel very honoured that people acknowledge my tennis career.”

As 10-time AO champion Novak Djokovic prepares for his semi-final battle with Italian Lorenzo Musetti this afternoon, his relationship with Serbian authorities remains in focus as year-long anti-government protests which he has supported continue to make headlines.

Earlier we brought you the news that Djokovic had gone from autocrat President Aleksandar Vucic’s favourite to a figure pilloried by the state-controlled press after he voiced support for the student-led demonstrations.

Now influential French daily L’Equipe has published a photo montage on its front page, showing a defiant Djokovic pasted over a student protest scene, with the headline “Novak Djokovic – popular and embarrassing” written on the Serbian flag.

The online version is headlined “Adored by the people, ignored by the authorities: Djokovic, symbol of a tense Serbia”.

The image of Djokovic in Wimbledon whites is taken from a recently repainted mural of the tennis legend in central Belgrade, after it was covered with black paint, as we reported earlier. The mural features the line “pump it”, the anti-government protest slogan. (At last year’s AO, we reported of Djokovic expressing support for the students – which was ignored in some Serbian media whose reporters were courtside.)

Street artist Andrej Josifovski, known as Pijanist, who painted the mural, told the newspaper: “Novak supported our protests in several ways. But it was discreet, through ‘likes’ or words.

“At Wimbledon he made the pumping gesture and everyone knew what it meant. That day I received a million messages in which people wrote to me, ‘Novak pumped!’ The very next day I painted this image on a wall, and it soon became a trend for people to come and take photos next to it.”

Serbian columnist Dejan Ilic, who had been charged with spreading panic after a guest TV appearance last year, said that Djokovic’s support for the students was neither strong nor explicit, but rather “modest, reasonable, and symbolic” but that young people experienced it as “disproportionately significant”.

“This shows how desperately the Serbian people need support for their actions, and yet we are still in the same place. I do not think his image has suffered because of this stance or that he has lost the support of the people, but this regime can contribute to that and has the power to shame him,” Ilic said.

Speaking in the Serbian-language press conference after his last Open match, Djokovic, who has moved his family, as well as the family-run tournament Belgrade Open to Athens, confirmed the tournament would likely never again be held in Serbia. The ATP will decide on its timing for 2026.

Last November, Djokovic triumphed at the inaugural Athens Open. His opponent? Today’s quarter-finalist Musetti.

Earlier we brought you the news Carlos Alcaraz had played golf with Roger Federer while the tennis legend was in Melbourne, and that his ex-coach Juan Carlos Ferrero was now a golf coach.

So what does Carlitos intend to do away from the court as he prepares for his semi-final showdown with Alexander Zverev?

“Golf is always on the list,” he said in the Spanish-language press conference late on Tuesday night after beating Australia’s favourite son, Alex de Minaur.

Other things are on the menu, too.

“Some walks, with my team, with my people, some peace and quiet,” he said.

The world No.1 said he’d come to the Open while watching cult TV series Stranger Things, and he hoped to continue that, as well as chatting with his friends back in Spain online.

He’s got plenty of support here, too – he singled out his brother Alvaro and father Carlos snr among his wider team, in his post-match interview with Jim Courier.

Carlitos’ dad halted his pro career for financial reasons and was his star son’s early mentor and coach.

Alcaraz said he was lucky to have plenty of support among fans in Australia, after earlier filming and taking a selfie with a joyous group post-match.

There is little point in trying to convince anyone that Alex de Minaur’s latest grand slam quarter-final defeat at the Australian Open was different to the rest.

Even the ultra-competitive de Minaur was largely disinterested – at least in the hour or so after the match – in the positives of his 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 loss to an imperious Carlos Alcaraz, who could become the youngest man to win a career grand slam by Sunday night.

He played bigger and more fearlessly than ever before, and broke world No.1 Alcaraz’s serve twice in the opening set thanks to those things.

Yet, the result was the same, and that is all de Minaur cares about. He spent this summer, and particularly this Open, telling everyone that he was not satisfied being just another “number” in the draw.

It is patently obvious that the world No.6, who will remain at that ranking unless American Ben Shelton reaches the final, is one of the best few players on the planet. However, he hungers for grand slam glory – and that seems out of reach at the moment.

De Minaur winning only one set in his seven major quarter-finals, which includes his Wimbledon walkover two years ago, tells us that, but the reasons are many and varied.

Read the full analysis here.

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