{"id":411561,"date":"2026-01-15T19:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/411561\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T19:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:24:09","slug":"roger-federer-hails-alcaraz-and-sinners-great-rivalry-amid-australian-open-return-australian-open-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/411561\/","title":{"rendered":"Roger Federer hails Alcaraz and Sinner\u2019s \u2018great\u2019 rivalry amid Australian Open return | Australian Open 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roger Federer hailed the dominance of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as the six-time champion returned to the Australian Open for the first time since his retirement in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Federer, who last travelled to Australia in 2020, will headline the inaugural opening ceremony with a doubles exhibition match alongside Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter and \u00adLleyton Hewitt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rivalry with Alcaraz and Sinner is a great one,\u201d said Federer. \u201cThey play incredible tennis. I think that French Open final was unreal. I think the game, not that it needed it, but it was great that we had it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federer continued: \u201cThen they backed it up by playing against each other in all those other finals. Everybody is trying to keep up and they\u2019re trying to pull away. What we\u2019ve seen in terms of their progression in the last years, it\u2019s been wonderful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI practised with those guys a little bit. They\u2019re incredible ball strikers. There\u2019s obviously more to come. I just hope they stay injury free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz will face Adam Walton<\/a> of Australia in his first round match at Melbourne Park after the draw was conducted on Thursday afternoon. Sinner, the second seed, will begin his title defence against France\u2019s Hugo Gaston.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen if any \u00adchallenger is capable of competing with either of the top two as both players chase historic victories in Melbourne. Alcaraz, the world No 1, will be attempting to become the youngest man in history to win the career grand slam at just 22 years old. While he has already won every other major twice, the Spaniard is yet to pass the quarter-final stage at the Australian Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sinner will be attempting to win his third consecutive title here.<\/p>\n

Seeded fourth, Novak Djokovic was drawn into Sinner\u2019s half of the Australian Open draw and will face Pedro Mart\u00ednez in round one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Djokovic, who has won the \u00adAustralian Open a record 10 times, will hope to put together another deep run and challenge for the title in his 22nd grand slam season, having reached the semi-finals last year only to have to retire against Alexander Zverev.<\/p>\n

The stakes are just as high in the women\u2019s draw as Iga Swiatek, the No 2 seed, will also be attempting to complete her career grand slam with a seventh major title overall, after previously winning four French Open titles and a victory apiece at Wimbledon and the US Open.<\/p>\n

Swiatek, a semi-finalist in 2022, will begin her tournament against a qualifier, but she has been handed a difficult draw in the bottom half. The Pole could face Naomi Osaka, the 31st seed and two-time champion, the fifth seed, Elena Rybakina, and Amanda Anisimova, the fourth seed, in consecutive rounds.<\/p>\n

At the top of the draw, world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka seeks her third Australian Open title. Sabalenka\u2019s loss in last year\u2019s final to Madison Keys also marked her third consecutive final in Melbourne. The Belarusian, who won her 22nd WTA title in Brisbane last week, begins her Australian Open campaign against Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah of France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Federer hailed the dominance of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as the six-time champion returned to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-411561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}