Tennis fans are guaranteed four thrilling days of action during the Australian Open 2026 qualifying event, as confirmed by the release of the entry lists.
Grand Slam stars, emerging talents and Australian favourites will feature among the 128-player men’s and women’s fields, with the action to kick off on Monday 12 January at Melbourne Park.
ENTRY LISTS: Men’s qualifying | Women’s qualifying
Final-round qualifying matches play out across the precinct on Thursday 15 January, part of the bumper tennis and entertainment offering during AO Opening Week presented by Herald Sun.
Players are required to win three matches to secure one of the 16 places available to qualifiers in both the men’s and women’s singles main draws at AO 2026. There are three main-draw wildcards remaining to be announced in the men’s draw, while one wildcard is still to be allocated in the women’s.
Headlining the women’s qualifying entry list is world No.104 Polina Kudermetova, who reached this year’s Brisbane International final.
She is joined in the field by 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens, AO 2021 finalist Jennifer Brady and former top-10 star Kristina Mladenovic, all using protected rankings to enter the field.
Katie Boulter and Taylor Townsend are other notable names on the list, while rising stars Lilli Tagger (the 2025 Roland Garros junior winner) and Alina Korneeva (who won the girls’ title at AO 2023) will offer fans a glimpse of the sport’s promising future.
Twelve Australians will also compete in qualifying: Astra Sharma, Maddison Inglis, Olivia Gadecki and Arina Rodionova, plus wildcards Destanee Aiava, Lizette Cabrera, Tina Smith, Elena Micic, Storm Hunter, Alana Subasic, Tahlia Kokkinis and Renee Alame.
The ninth and final women’s qualifying wildcard goes to French junior rising star Ksenia Efremova, as part of a reciprocal arrangement.
Local representation is similarly strong on the men’s side, with 12 Australians on the list. This includes Jordan Thompson, Bernard Tomic, Alex Bolt, Jason Kubler, James McCabe and Dane Sweeny – who were directly accepted into the qualifying event – plus wildcards Cruz Hewitt, Edward Winter, Pavle Marinkov, Li Tu, Moerani Bouzige and Philip Sekulic.
Australian Open 2025 junior champion Henry Bernet has also been awarded a wildcard, while two more men’s qualifying wildcards will be confirmed in the first week of January.
MORE: Junior entry lists released for AO 2026
The men’s qualifying entry list is led by world No.102 Vit Kopriva of Czechia, while fans will note other well-known names like former world No.4 Kei Nishikori, Dan Evans, Nicholas Jarry, Dusan Lajovic, Yoshihito Nishioka, Mackenzie McDonald, Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Wu Yibing.
Seven rising stars who competed at last week’s Next Gen ATP Finals – AO 2023 junior champion Alexander Blockx, plus Dino Prizmic, Martin Landaluce, Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, Nishesh Basavareddy, Rafael Jodar and Justin Engel – are also on the list, as is Australian Open 2024 boy’s champion Rei Sakamoto, now a top-200 men’s player.