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Winning a vocation Grand Slam (acquiring each 4 Majors astatine slightest once) is 1 measurement of a implicit tennis player. At the 2026 Australian Open, which begins this Sunday, 2 players volition person the accidental to bash it. Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek volition beryllium gunning for their maiden crowns successful Melbourne, to spell with the six Majors each that they person won elsewhere. In his quest to go the youngest antheral to implicit the vocation Slam successful the Open Era (from 1968), the World No.1 Spaniard is expected to look a stiff trial from two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner. Also, Alcaraz’s champion effect Down Under is quarterfinals (2024 and 2025), and the 22-year-old nary longer has Juan Carlos Ferrero, the trusted mentor with whom helium divided from aft 7 rewarding years. Sinner, 24, volition beryllium connected a ngo of his ain — to go the lone man, isolated from the legendary Novak Djokovic, to clinch a hat-trick of Australian Opens successful the Open Era. For Swiatek, a clay-court large and the 2025 Wimbledon champion, the adjacent 2 weeks connection the accidental to further evolve. However, the 24-year-old volition look an almighty situation from No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, with the Belarusian’s power-packed crippled and singular consistency — 4 wins, 3 finals and 4 semifinals from her past 12 Major appearances — making her the subordinate to beat.
How 24-time Slam victor Djokovic fares volition besides beryllium watched with interest. The 38-year-old, a grounds 10-time titlist successful Australia, has not won a Major since the 2023 US Open. Though helium reached the semifinals astatine each Slams successful 2025, helium was mostly uncompetitive successful those contests. This edition, helium is successful the aforesaid fractional arsenic Sinner, to whom helium has mislaid 5 matches successful a row. The Serb volition request a herculean effort to weaken the Alcaraz-Sinner hegemony that has swept the past 8 Grand Slam tournaments. Though specified dominance is not thing that defines women’s tennis, the likes of Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova person a estimation for repeatedly knocking connected the doors. Gauff, contempt her seemingly constricted game, is simply a two-time Major winner, and Anisimova comes successful having made some the Wimbledon and US Open finals recently. Equally, a astonishing rubric run, specified arsenic American Madison Keys’s astatine Melbourne Park successful 2025, cannot beryllium discounted. For India, it volition beryllium the archetypal Slam aft doubles prima Rohan Bopanna’s retirement. The federation does not person an progressive Major champion immoderate more, and it volition beryllium a 4th consecutive Slam without singles representation. It volition beryllium up to Yuki Bhambri, No. 21 successful doubles, to alert the emblem high.
