In the lead-up to and throughout Australian Open 2026, we’ve been chatting to off-court identities helping cement the AO’s reputation as one of the world’s premier sporting and entertainment events.
Today it’s Jarra Davis, an Australian content creator whose sports coverage and storytelling has earned him large followings on both TikTok and Instagram.
We caught up with him at Melbourne Park to chat about his work, his connection with tennis, and what's caught his eye at AO 2026.
AUSOPEN.COM: Tell us about your journey as a content creator. We’ve seen your stuff on Instagram and TikTok – how long you've been creating content, and why do you do what you do?
JARRA DAVIS: “I think it mostly started in COVID, when I think everyone was a bit shell-shocked about what was happening, a bit bored, everyone stuck at home. I used to have, like, sports debates at school just with my mates, just talk about sports. But then as soon as we went into COVID, you couldn't have that connection anymore. But I was still fascinated by sports. So I was like, how can I talk about sports without my mates being around here? So I just turned to the internet and just started talking to my phone about sports and then people started to watch and comment and I used to reply to comments back and forth and that was it.
“I just got to talk to this massive world of sports. People from Australia, people from England, the US, all around the world. About all sorts of random sports. Started with [Australian rules] footy, started with cricket, and then it started moving into every other sport that I found interesting. If I found a story that I enjoyed, or a player that had a fascinating background, I was like, I wanna talk about that. I wanna get other people's opinions on it. We could debate about it. We could talk, we could bond over it.”
So is footy your first love? Would you say that's your No.1 sport?
“Yeah. Footy will always be, I think that’s the base. It's what I grew up loving. It's what my old man would never shut up about. Then off the back of learning to love footy, I've just learned to love every sport, every sports story. I just get fascinated by the details of anything. Like, I just go on deep dives into random things, but they always seem to be, I guess, in the sports world.”
So what is it that fascinates you about tennis?
“I think there's a lot of team sports around the world, which are fascinating because team dynamics are fascinating. But tennis is one of the only sports where it is so individual. Not only individual in the sense that you are one-on-one on the court – although you obviously have doubles as well – but for the majority of players, you're also essentially like a free agent. Like, like there's no real massive overarching league that you are with. They're paying for their own travel and their own expenses and they're trying to fund their lifestyle."
So is that more fascinating to you than, say, the dynamics of what happens on court, or is that something else you've discovered the more you've watched tennis?
“So it's weird because I love watching the actual game, but I think there's so many people who can talk about the game of tennis, probably with a little bit more credibility than I can… and the results-based stuff. Which is fascinating in itself, but I find the backstory is way more fascinating with tennis. It's just a completely different dynamic and when you speak to the players, it's like they just live a completely different lifestyle to any other athlete that I've ever spoken to.”
Are there any players you find particularly fascinating characters, or someone's story or journey that fascinates you more than others?
“I think being an Aussie, I'm just naturally drawn to Aussie players. So I think the story of Thanasi Kokkinakis and his injury battles and like having all of this potential and then just being struck down by injury left, right, and centre… And then on the other side of the spectrum, you've got Alex de Minaur, whose story is fascinating – born in Sydney, moved overseas, came back, is seen as the Aussie hero.”
Have you met either of them?
“I briefly met Thanasi. And that was the first thing I asked him, and it's weird because you just met a person, and you feel like you know him. And I just asked him this question: how do you deal with the stress of just like being by yourself and being injured and wanting to play at the highest level, but your body just continuously lets you down? Which is a confronting question to ask someone … [but] it was a fascinating conversation about just his mindset. And I realise every tennis player, lower level, higher level, everyone I've spoken to, has a very similar mindset of just being so self-driven that [compared with] a lot of other sports, especially team sports, the players just have a different mindset.”
So tell us a little bit about your role here as a creator. What have you been doing and what's the AO 2026 experience been like for you?
“This is my first, outside of an AFL footy, like, journalism role really, which is fascinating in itself. I've got a desk up there [in the press centre] it's like The Age, Herald Sun, ABC, and then it's like @DavisJarra (smiling). You've got these established journalists writing articles, and then you have this sort of like new media wave coming in; myself, and the Kick It Forward boys who make some great online content as well… to I guess feed a different generation of sports lovers.”
How are you telling the story of the tournament? How are you approaching your content while you're here in this ‘new media’ environment?
“I think a younger audience just consumes media differently nowadays, so it's a lot of online stuff. It's a lot of video stuff, and they want someone who they can sort of relate to. It's like trying to tell the story in their language. So like, I can read an article and understand it, but sometimes I'll put an article on my Instagram or my story, which an established journalist has written, and I get messages, like, I don't understand what he's saying. What is he trying to say? So then I try and sort of, I guess, put it in a video form – add some B-roll footage, add some different storytelling notes. Just touch on different things that I think a younger audience really cares about. Which at the Australian Open is a lot of the stuff that's actually off the court.”
I saw your story today where you experienced the new Walk of Champions – which is so cool. What are some of the things that you've benefitted from being on site to show your followers?
“I think the Walk of Champions is the best one because this is what the players see just before they're about to play in the biggest moments. For the majority of fans, they will never get that experience. Because I'm so new to this, and if I find it interesting… I wanna take [my audience] on that journey because a lot of these people are not gonna get to walk down the Champions Walk.”
As a content creator, do you have much screen-free time? Particularly if you're on site to make content, you gotta be across so much…
“It is a hard balance to wrestle with because everything that we do is like online. Your brain is sort of always in the mode of, oh, would this be interesting to show? Would this be interesting to film? Would this be something I can use as B-roll later? And then sometimes you've just gotta say, just, ‘Hey, just take a break, be in the moment’. So I really do try and get off my phone as much as possible.”
What’s been the best match you've watched so far at AO 2026?
“It's hard to go past Alex De Minaur [versus Frances Tiafoe] just because he was in phenomenal form. He had that massive heartbreak last year where he looked really good then met Sinner in I think the quarterfinals. And it really wasn't super competitive. And then a lot of the doubters started coming out. Oh, he's never gonna win a major, he doesn't quite have the physical capabilities. But Alex has always had that Aussie spirit in him of, like, I'm just gonna get better. I'm just gonna keep grinding."