Maddison Inglis’s inspired Australian Open comes to an end, as Iga \u015awi\u0105tek moves through to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
But Inglis still walked away proud to have managed her best finish at a major.<\/p>\n
It was an achievement that seemed remote when she arrived in Melbourne ahead of the qualifying rounds.<\/p>\n
“Going into this tournament, I didn’t think that I had that in me,” Inglis revealed to reporters after her loss to \u015awi\u0105tek.<\/p>\n
“Even though today didn’t go like I had planned, it was an incredible two weeks.<\/p>\n
“Pretty life-changing for me. The best result of my career.<\/p>\n
“So I’m super happy. I’m looking forward to taking it into the rest of the year.”<\/p>\n
Inglis takes her chances<\/p>\n
Inglis’s run to the fourth round was multi-faceted: it featured drama, emotion and a decent amount of luck.<\/p>\n
Following a tense win over friend and fellow Australian Kimberly Birrell in the first round, Inglis staged an inspired third-set comeback to defeat experienced German Laura Siegemund in her next match.<\/p>\n
Inglis admits she was then dealt a fortunate hand.<\/p>\n
Only hours before she was to take to the court against Naomi Osaka in the third round, she learned the two-time Australian Open champion had withdrawn because of an abdominal injury.<\/p>\n
The walkover pitted Inglis against \u015awi\u0105tek, who is chasing the only major that has alluded her during her remarkable career.<\/p>\n
It was a step up in class for Inglis after she spent much of 2025 contesting lower-tier events.<\/p>\n
![\"Maddison](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/37988a458f527f123cdb44e86cb26034.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Maddison Inglis tried valiantly against Iga \u015awi\u0105tek. (Getty Images: Lintao Zhang)<\/p>\n
“She’s (\u015awi\u0105tek) just a next-level player. I don’t think I’ve had a lot of experience playing those matches,” Inglis said.<\/p>\n
“You just kind of feel that pressure from every ball from her.<\/p>\n
“There are a couple of things that I can work on to do better in those moments, but I thought I did my absolute best out there. I gave it everything.<\/p>\n
“So I am disappointed, but also proud of that.”<\/p>\n
Massive rankings rise<\/p>\n
Inglis’s charge into the fourth round will see her enjoy a significant rankings jump.<\/p>\n
She is 168 on the WTA standings but is projected to rise as high as 113, one short of her career-best ranking.<\/p>\n
The top 100 beckons, although Inglis realises there is much work to do before she ticks that achievement off her list of goals.<\/p>\n
“That jump, from 113 to 100, is still a long way,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I’ll keep going. I’ll have a little break now, but I’m keen to get back into it and keep rising.”<\/p>\n
![\"Maddiosn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/8d73abc765154f5c54e76bd180e5ac8e.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Maddison Inglis still had reason to smile despite the defeat on Monday evening. (Getty Images: Lintao Zhang)<\/p>\n
Aside from the rankings leap, Inglis will depart Melbourne $480,000 richer because of the prize money awarded to her for making the fourth round.<\/p>\n
“I’ll definitely use a lot of it to invest back into my tennis and have some people on the road with me to support me and make some weeks a bit easier with family or friends,” Inglis said.<\/p>\n
“Because it’s a long year.”<\/p>\n
Inglis is confident there will be enough left over so she can indulge in one of her passions \u2014 shopping.<\/p>\n
She has a dream car on her mind, but the wish list is otherwise modest as it surprisingly includes a toaster and kettle.<\/p>\n
“I love appliances,” Inglis laughed, eventually flagging plans for a slightly more extravagant stand mixer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reaching the Australian Open fourth round was a prospect Maddison Inglis did not dare to dream about a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,81,6571,185880,2636,219485,188599,61414,221809,85,747],"class_list":["post-439339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian","tag-australian-open","tag-fourth-round","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-maddison-inglis","tag-melbourne-park","tag-qualifier","tag-rod-laver-arena","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439339","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=439339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}