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\u2018CAN\u2019T LET THE INMATES RUN THE ASYLUM\u2019: IGA\u2019S SCHEDULE REQUEST SHUT DOWN<\/p>\n
Iga Swiatek lost a tense battle with tournament officials before her clash with Australian qualifier Maddison Inglis on Monday night.<\/p>\n
The world No.2 did not want to be playing her fourth round match in the night session on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n
Instead, Swiatek wanted to take on the local hope in blazing sunshine and it sparked tense conversations behind the scenes at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n
Broadcaster Channel 9, of course, wanted the last remaining Australian in the women\u2019s singles draw to be playing in prime time and they got their way.<\/p>\n
Swiatek has had to suck it up, but the decision did not go down without a fight, according to former world No.1 Jim Courier.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday\u2019s schedule meeting went exceptionally long, because Swiatek wanted a day match and the Australian network \u2013 which I also work for down here \u2013 desperately wanted an Australian playing in prime time. That\u2019s what they pay the big money for,\u201d Courier said on Tennis Channel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a long, drawn-out battle and it went to the wire. Eventually Channel 9 got what they wanted \u2013 and also what the tournament wants \u2013 and Iga didn\u2019t get what she wanted. But those are the backroom happenings at tournaments here like this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lots of little skirmishes happening underneath the tunnels.\u201d<\/p>\n
2000 Australian Open champion Lindsay Davenport backed tournament organisers call to deny the Polish star her wish.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t let the inmates run the asylum. And every player has an opinion but eventually it\u2019s a business and as Jim said, Australian TV should win,\u201d the American great said.<\/p>\n
While the best result for Australian audiences was secured, Courier also pointed out the fact that Swiatek\u2019s preference would have been a worse result for her fans back home in Poland.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd by the way, her playing at 11.30 in the morning is terrible for Europe, where she\u2019s from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s middle of the night for them. This makes a lot more sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to foxsports.com.au and surrounding media on Monday evening, two-time Doubles Grand Slam champion Alicia Molik spoke to the tough task ahead for Inglis after her \u201cunbelievable\u201d fourth-round qualification.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable. She nearly didn\u2019t get through her first round of qualifying, I think she was in tears in her first set of the first round at (qualifying),\u201d Molik said at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be in it to win it \u2026 and the draw opens up. This is her Australian Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s in with a chance, but Iga\u2019s Iga \u2014 she\u2019s pretty tough to beat. Tactically, Iga matches up better in every department than Maddie\u2019s game, so it\u2019s going to have to take something pretty titantic to beat her.\u201d<\/p>\n
2011 US Open Singles winner and former World No.1 Samantha Stosur added: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a very tough one, (but) you have to be out there to win it and she\u2019s got herself in this position.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s obviously going to have to play very well. She\u2019s up against a Grand Slam champion who doesn\u2019t hold back. Iga hits one of the heaviest balls going around, but Maddy\u2019s got some things in her game that I really believe she can unsettle players (with). \u201cShe\u2019s won a lot of matches, she\u2019s scrapped through some tight ones and is pretty match tough, so we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ufeff\u2018IT\u2019S CRAZY WHAT YOU CAN DO\u2019: AUSSIE UNDERDOG DARES TO DREAM<\/p>\n
Australians are hoping for one of the biggest upsets in tournament history on Monday night on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n
Maddison Inglis has been the feel good story of the Australian Open so far, and it would only get even better if she can down second seed Iga Swiatek.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old from Perth became the first local woman to reach the fourth round at Melbourne Park since Ash Barty, in her title-winning campaign of 2022, courtesy of Naomi Osaka\u2019s withdrawal with an abdominal injury. <\/p>\n
But she well and truly earned that stroke of good fortune.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaddison Inglis has just been struggling around the tour, just scraping into qualifying,\u201d Australian tennis great Pat Cash told BBC Radio 5 Live.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think she ever believed she would be in the fourth round.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously she\u2019s got the walkover but she\u2019s played really well and – for somebody who struggles around making a 1,000 bucks a year here and 1,000 bucks there, trying to get into the Grand Slams where you can make 150,000, or something like that (for the first round) – it\u2019s life-changing for her,\u201d Cash added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy for her because she works really hard and has just been grinding away on the circuit for years and years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuing the theme of \u201cgrinding away\u201d, Inglis spent more than three hours on court in her first and second round victories against fellow Australian Kim Birrell and German veteran Laura Siegemund.<\/p>\n
She has certainly not shied away from doing things the hard way.<\/p>\n
Ranked 168th in the world coming into the tournament, Inglis was snubbed for a wildcard by Tennis Australia.<\/p>\n
So, she went to the qualifiers and won three hard fought matches in three consecutive days.<\/p>\n
TENNIS PHOTO SPECIAL – MELBOURNE, JANUARY 22, 2026: Australian Open Tennis – Day Five. Maddison Inglis (AUS) celebrates her win against Laura Siegemund (GER) during their second round match on ANZ Arena. Picture: Mark StewartSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Combined with her doubles and mixed doubles, where she plays alongside fianc\u00e9 Jason Kubler, schedules and Inglis has spent more than 16 hours on court at Melbourne Park in the last two weeks.<\/p>\n
The extra day off afforded to her was certainly welcome, but Inglis believes the momentum she gathered behind her will be just as important as refreshing her legs.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get out there and playing, and you want it so bad, it\u2019s crazy what you can do,\u201d she said after her second round victory.<\/p>\n
For a player who has been plugging away on lower level tours, it is obvious why she wants \u201cit so bad\u201d.<\/p>\n
Inglis is guaranteed what she described as a \u201clife-changing\u201d payday of $480,000 for reaching the final 16.<\/p>\n
It is a steep increase from her last three tournaments in Australia at the lower level, where she earned $4,886, $935 and $598 respectively.<\/p>\n
The WTA live rankings also have her closing in on her career best ranking of 112th in the world.<\/p>\n
That number continuing to improve can lead to more main draw opportunities and the more lucrative finances that come with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s massive, it\u2019s not something I was thinking about even a week ago … someone told me I am close to my career high and I\u2019m not done yet, we\u2019ll see what I can finish this tournament at,\u201d Inglis told Channel 9.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo start the year like this, I couldn\u2019t be happier, I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
AUSTRALIAN OPEN NIGHT 9 ORDER OF PLAY<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Singles fourth round<\/p>\n
Show courts and Aussies – all times AEDT<\/p>\n
Rod Laver Arena<\/p>\n
Night session from 7pm<\/p>\n
Maddison Inglis (AUS) vs [9] Iga Swiatek (POL)<\/p>\n
Followed by<\/p>\n
[8] Ben Shelton (USA) vs [12] Casper Ruud (NOR)<\/p>\n
Margaret Court Arena<\/p>\n
Not before 6pm<\/p>\n
[22] Luciano Darderi (ITA) vs [2] Jannik Sinner (ITA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia has a new fairytale story to get behind as qualifier Maddison Inglis takes on world No.2 Iga…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[34341,2095,64,224946,63,689,228291,228292,227835,222903,228295,228296,185522,228299,228300,21693,962,227833,19527,228297,11301,800,2057,228290,225596,136013,219484,46036,6663,219485,611,28375,673,70420,2041,2067,677,62968,46,5427,21396,228294,221809,228302,228301,227843,85,51303,670,747,228293,228298,62378,120051,2614,3439],"class_list":["post-438138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alexander-volkanovski","tag-america","tag-au","tag-aussie-underdog","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-audiences","tag-australian-network","tag-australian-open-day","tag-australian-open-tennis","tag-australian-playing","tag-australian-qualifier","tag-australian-tennis","tag-backroom-happenings","tag-bbc-radio-5-live","tag-ben-shelton","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-court-arena","tag-day-match","tag-draw-opportunities","tag-eastern-europe","tag-espn-inc","tag-europe","tag-fairytale-story","tag-german-veteran","tag-home-city","tag-jason-kubler","tag-jim-courier","tag-lindsay-davenport","tag-maddison-inglis","tag-mark","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-new-south-wales","tag-night-session","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-pat-cash","tag-perth","tag-poland","tag-prize-money","tag-request-shutdown","tag-rod-laver-arena","tag-schedule-meeting","tag-scheduling-request","tag-show-courts","tag-sports","tag-stewart","tag-sydney","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-photo-special","tag-tournament-history","tag-tournament-officials","tag-tournament-organisers","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}