2026 Australian Open - Women's Discussion

Who will be WTA Singles Champion for the 2026 Australian Open?

  • Total voters
    9
  • Poll closed .
Mr.Lob said:
Shedding a few pounds wouldn't hurt with her movement.
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Fed881981 said:
ESPN haven’t been covering this AO as much as in previous years, it feels to me. But, I didn’t follow as closely as I used to, and so I might be wrong here.
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Get the ESPN app - tells u which channel is carrying it. Coverage has been on espn2, sometimes even on espn deportes
 
Danilina/Krunic impressively bagels #1 Siniakova/Townsend 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 for a big upset.

#5 Dabrowski/Stefani leads #3 Hsieh/Ostapenko 6-1, 5-4 so maybe another upset coming. Strangely, this match is behind ESPN's more expensive "Unlimited" pay wall.
 
the pressure of career slam? or Iga is entering another long drought, and she will win something big when people least expect it, like Wimbledon
 
Moose Malloy said:
I find the cameras everywhere thing, even the locker room(or whatever the room is where they warm up etc is) kind of pathetic. All this clickbait footage(Sab's making crude gestures with her team after losing AO final, many players sobbing as they walk down the hall after losing - "aw, isn't that a shame" from commentator on air while the producer in truck is probably cackling with glee)

Can you imagine Sampras, Courier, Agassi ok with this nonsense? Not to mention Mac and Lendl. Does any other sport do this? I remember Sampras hid in the TD's room right next to Ashe entrance so no one would see him leave locker and walk down that corridor(or maybe he didn't want other players to see his prep).

I'm surprised they haven't tried to get cameras in the crapper, fans today MUST see everything!! Coco clearly tried to find a place with no cameras, but sadly failed. And then the reporters who have virtually no interesting questions most of the time now have a gem of a question.
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It is a different world with social media and the ever increasing prize money. If you are even a little famous because of sport, cameras will come out of the woodwork. I don't think it is fair but this is the new world we are in.
 
Mark-Touch said:
At least there was a clean game to finish the match. :)
Congrats Ryba!
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Mark-Touch said:
There's something very dullish about Swiatek. More specifically Nadalish.
The deliberate serve. The jumping around the court. The extreme western grip.
The toweling off. Holding up the game...
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She is trying too hard, too many different things but karma will always win.
Mark-Touch said:
Too much adrenaline flowing through Ryba's veins. :(
Over-hitting.
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Mentally weak, she is getting tensed.
Localfoc said:
v*kov delivering a whole lecture to Ryba AFTER she has won the 1st set. a dozen things she needs to do better.
where's the encouragement? where's the simplicity?
mug.
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Yep she needs that to get to the final. She is not the player who wins on encouragement or simplicity.
 
ibbi said:
Lena is going to be hopeless against Jess at night, isn't she?:cry: She's going to be pushed into oblivion. 30 unforced errors in 2 sets. I can see it now.
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Pegulas pushing will only work till semis till a player figures her out. Hopefully Vukic will have screamed some sense into Rybakina. This is Sabalenka's slam to lose now.
 
If it's a Sabalenka-Rybakina final, that will be a great one, and I'd give Rybakina at least 50/50 odds. Can't see the other two semi finalists going back to back against Sabalenka/Rybakina. It would be some effort if they did.
 
robyrolfo said:
Oh, she worked on it. She even hired a specialist (the same that helped Sabs)... It's just that the work didn't work!

I'm still impressed at the way Sabalenka turned it around, and it's pretty amazing that Coco seems nowhere near finding her way out of it.

And I love all those people that talked trash about Brad Gilbert after she fired him. How dumb do they look now? Brad was actually the best coach for her. Winning ugly is just about the only way she can win something big with all the issues in her game.


Yeah, that moment was incredible. She was nowhere near respecting it, and the umpire just looked the other way. What a joke.


Gauff never has a game plan other than getting to every ball and hoping her opponent misses, or some court opens up for her based on how her opponent tries to construct the point. When she plays really weak players, she also tries to overpower them a bit, too, but not in any particular way.

But then Sabalkena isn't some tactical master either. She just hits as hard as she can, left and right, usually alternating. That's it.

The current tour is all just who is hitting harder on a particular day. A rare exception like Muchova is too fragile, or not consistent enough to actually make her good tennis work. Graf and Navratilova would walk through these fields like butter.
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"The current tour is all just who is hitting harder on a particular day." Their games are too grooved hitting with male partners.
Women's tennis is just about hitting one more ball. You can only play tactically if you can all the different shots consistently. McEnroe and Navratilova were able to come to the net because their groundstrokes were excellent and they didn't need to come in prematurely. Without a thoroughly solid all round game they could not have been such chess players
 
Why Amanda is this overweight? She cant move and she dont have the ability to defend and rush to the net, go watch her in 2022 she was in shape and very thin, now she carries around a lot of weight and shes just wasting her incredible talent
 
Fabrivitx said:
Why Amanda is this overweight? She cant move and she dont have the ability to defend and rush to the net, go watch her in 2022 she was in shape and very thin, now she carries around a lot of weight and shes just wasting her incredible talent
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She isn't very overweight.
I watched her play just a few months ago and the first thing that struck me was how trim she was.
It was great to see. I had never seen her that slim before.
Since then she has put on a few pounds, but nothing serious.

Yes her movement would improve if she shed a few pounds, but likely not enough to have changed the outcome
of her match against jPeg yesterday.

The mental side played a big part in her loss.
 
Mark-Touch said:
She isn't very overweight.
I watched her play just a few months ago and the first thing that struck me was how trim she was.
It was great to see. I had never seen her that slim before.
Since then she has put on a few pounds, but nothing serious.

Yes her movement would improve if she shed a few pounds, but likely not enough to have changed the outcome
of her match against jPeg yesterday.

The mental side played a big part in her loss.
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Saw her play live in 2019, she looked almost emaciated back then, so thin (really most pros look like that in person). Of course she was only 17 then. My female companion was shocked at how hard she hit with such scrawny legs(we also saw Collins, Mugu, Vekic, Azarenka play - the sound of Anisomva's ball off the racquet was different than anyone else), But she wasn't much of a mover even at 17.
 
Mark-Touch said:
She isn't very overweight.
I watched her play just a few months ago and the first thing that struck me was how trim she was.
It was great to see. I had never seen her that slim before.
Since then she has put on a few pounds, but nothing serious.

Yes her movement would improve if she shed a few pounds, but likely not enough to have changed the outcome
of her match against jPeg yesterday.

The mental side played a big part in her loss.
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Hes movements and slow feet says otherwise, there is at least 10 kg to lose
 
Aussie Darcy said:
None of the 4 SFists have dropped a set.

Going to guess that hasn’t happened in a while.
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I'm curious as well as to when this last happened.
2 years ago AO was decimated by upsets and many crapped on women's tennis because of it, so I guess this is sort of a good thing.

edit - I recall it happening in '95, but wasn't sure which major. Happened at RG - Sanchez(1), Graf(2), Martinez(4) and Date(9)
 
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ScottleeSV said:
If it's a Sabalenka-Rybakina final, that will be a great one, and I'd give Rybakina at least 50/50 odds. Can't see the other two semi finalists going back to back against Sabalenka/Rybakina. It would be some effort if they did.
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It will probably be Svitolina vs Pegula, with Madame Monfils taking it all and turning winner’s celebration into a political spectacle with appeals to donate to the Ukraine.
 
My question is: who allowed Anisimova to play in a bathing suit? Seriously, it looked like a bathing suit with a skirt over the bottom...

AM75 said:
Not really, you could see that she was constantly targeting Jovic's backhand and hasn't allowed Jovic play from the good position. She really knew what she was doing.
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I'm not sure that targeting a players weakness constitutes some sort of tactical mastery. Simply directing your ball bashing more to one side as opposed to the other is very straightforward.

Let's see Sabalenka construct a point in a way that involves something other than alternating left and right sides of the court. Let's see her actually use varying depth and pace on her shots...

ScentOfDefeat said:
It would be a joke if Gauff ended up in the Hall of Fame and Rybakina didn't because the latter can't seem to find a way to win a second Slam. With my luck, it's exactly what's gonna happen.
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I actually think Gauff will grab another couple of slams. Not because she is good (or HOF worthy), but because the field is so bad, and Sabalenka will be 30 in a few years.

If players like Raducanu, Kenin, Keys, Vondrousova... can grab one here and there, Gauff can stumble her way into another pair unless someone like Andreeva or Jovic really turns out to be as good as people think.

Localfoc said:
v*kov delivering a whole lecture to Ryba AFTER she has won the 1st set. a dozen things she needs to do better.
where's the encouragement? where's the simplicity?
mug.
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Say what you want about the guy, but I thought the way he spoke to her in that moment was pretty ideal.

He did have some positive things to say if you listen closely, and the tone wasn't harsh. He was essentially saying, 'You are doing great, keep it up, but just remember these things and you will do even better.'

medieval_remnant said:
"The current tour is all just who is hitting harder on a particular day." Their games are too grooved hitting with male partners.
Women's tennis is just about hitting one more ball. You can only play tactically if you can all the different shots consistently. McEnroe and Navratilova were able to come to the net because their groundstrokes were excellent and they didn't need to come in prematurely. Without a thoroughly solid all round game they could not have been such chess players
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I agree with all of this. The part about the WTA being about "hitting one more ball," is spot on.

Moose Malloy said:
Saw her play live in 2019, she looked almost emaciated back then, so thin (really most pros look like that in person). Of course she was only 17 then. My female companion was shocked at how hard she hit with such scrawny legs(we also saw Collins, Mugu, Vekic, Azarenka play - the sound of Anisomva's ball off the racquet was different than anyone else), But she wasn't much of a mover even at 17.
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I don't really agree with this. I remember seeing Andreescu and Osaka up close on the USO practice courts, and I was actually surprised at how big and strong (but still toned and trim) they looked. Both were wearing leggings instead of a skirt, so you could really see them, if you know what I mean. Petra Martic looked crazy skinny, but she does on TV anyway. Cristea looked perfect to me, as did Giorgi (obviously), with Camila looking really toned with great lean muscles.

Rybakina, Vondrousova, Sabalenka... lost of them looked pretty much the same in person to me as they do on TV.
 
Bill Lobsalot said:
Pegula hits hard, flat, and deep and is a good net player. Hardly a pusher.
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Nah, she's pretty much a pusher.

Those balls she hits? Usually up the middle and hardly threatening. She's a solid, competent player, but her success is further proof the WTA is in a bad state.

Transport her back to previous eras and she would have been bang average, not finding nearly as much success. The top players would have dismissed her without breaking a sweat.
 
AM75 said:
It will probably be Svitolina vs Pegula, with Madame Monfils taking it all and turning winner’s celebration into a political spectacle with appeals to donate to the Ukraine.
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That would be understandable, given the state of Ukraine

I suspect though the run ends today.
 
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