{"id":422450,"date":"2026-01-22T07:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422450\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T07:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:41:07","slug":"australian-qualifier-maddison-inglis-rides-emotions-to-tense-win-but-local-hopes-fade-australian-open-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422450\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian qualifier Maddison Inglis rides emotions to tense win but local hopes fade | Australian Open 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspired qualifier Maddison Inglis has ridden an emotional rollercoaster in her first grand slam appearance in four years to book a spot in the Australian Open<\/a> third round.<\/p>\n

Inglis has joined big gun Alex de Minaur<\/a> in the round of 32 after defeating German veteran Laura Siegemund 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (10-7) in a tense, gruelling and sometimes fiery match that lasted three hours and 20 minutes on ANZ Arena.<\/p>\n

After failing to serve out the match in the second set, the 28-year-old\u2019s hopes of progressing seemed over.<\/p>\n

But in mirroring her first-round win over close friend Kim Birrell<\/a>, when she failed to convert a gilt-edged opportunity, Inglis turned it around by breaking back when Siegemund was serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set.<\/p>\n

Despite appearing to injure herself late when stretching for a ball, the Perth product recovered and overcame some nervous moments to win the first-to-10-point tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

Maddison Inglis breaks down after beating Laura Siegemund in the women’s second round at the 2026 Australian Open. Photograph: Lukas Coch\/EPA<\/p>\n

Inglis fell to the ground after winning the final point in a tense rally, becoming the only Australian woman to make the third round.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t come in with high expectations. I can take it to anyone on any given day, but I wouldn\u2019t have dreamed of this,\u201d Inglis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the third set the crowd gave me the energy I didn\u2019t think I had. Coming into this I hadn\u2019t played a match for six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has spent six hours and 21 minutes on court in her two main-draw singles matches this campaign, plus a doubles match and three qualifying wins.<\/p>\n

Dane Sweeny is knocked out of the Australian Open with a loss to Ben Shelton at Melbourne Park. Photograph: James Ross\/EPA<\/p>\n

After not playing in the main draw of a grand slam since 2022, Inglis is guaranteed to pocket $327,750 for reaching the third round.<\/p>\n

Currently ranked 168 but sure to rise to the cusp of the top 100, Inglis equals her best result at a major, which came at Melbourne Park four years ago.<\/p>\n

After 11 Australians qualified for the second round, de Minaur and Inglis will likely be the only ones still left.<\/p>\n

Rinky Hijikata and Dane Sweeny bowed out early on Thursday, going down to their higher-ranked opponents.<\/p>\n

Two days after winning his first match at a major, Sweeny was blown away by American eighth seed Ben Shelton in just an hour and 42 minutes.<\/p>\n

Hijikata was bullied early by 30th seed Valentin Vacherot, before briefly fighting back in the first match of the day on Kia Arena.<\/p>\n

Pinching the third set, the 24-year-old made the Monaco player \u2013 who was playing at Melbourne Park for the first time \u2013 work harder for his win than he had earlier anticipated.<\/p>\n

But Vacherot closed out the match 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-2 in two hours and 28 minutes.<\/p>\n

It comes after Jordan Thompson, Ajla Tomljanovic, Talia Gibson, Storm Hunter and Priscilla Hon were all casualties during a Wednesday wipeout.<\/p>\n

World No 6 de Minaur was the only Australian to advance, eventually demolishing Serb Hamad Medjedovic after being outplayed in the first set.<\/p>\n

Wildcard Taylah Preston was able to take a set off 13th seed Linda Noskova, but the 20-year-old lost to the Czech star 6-2 4-6 6-2.<\/p>\n

Veteran wildcard James Duckworth faces the biggest mountain to climb of them all, set for a Rod Laver Arena clash in prime time against dual defending champion Jannik Sinner<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inspired qualifier Maddison Inglis has ridden an emotional rollercoaster in her first grand slam appearance in four years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-422450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}