BRISBANE, Australia – If it’s a new year, it’s got to be the Australian tennis event.
With just over six weeks to go before the ATP and WTA hold their respective 2025 Finals, players from the men’s and women’s tours will arrive in Australia and New Zealand for an intense two weeks of competition ahead of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of the year, which kicks off in Melbourne on January 18.
Leading the way is the Federation Cup, a mixed team event that starts on Friday in Perth and Sydney and ends on January 11. This event will feature four of the top 10 male and female players in the world, including Coco Gauff, Taylor Fritz, Alex de Minaur, Iga Świątek, Alexander Zverev, and Jasmine Paolini. and Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Also in the first week of 2026, the Brisbane International will be headlined by defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, fresh off her Battle of the Sexes exhibition match against Nick Kyrgios in Dubai.
But two of the biggest stars in men’s tennis were absent from the match ahead of the Australian Open: No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 2 Yannick Sinner.
Alcaraz and Sinner have won nine of the past 10 Grand Slam singles titles, with Sinner winning the 2025 Australian Open. They decided to play an exhibition match on January 10th in Incheon, South Korea. After the exhibition match, they are expected to fly to Australia to begin preparations at Melbourne Park.
Alcaraz will play in his first major in seven years without coach Juan Carlos Ferrero – the Spanish player recently announced their split. Alcaraz has yet to announce a successor.
Greece will face Japan in Perth on Friday, with other players involved in the Confederations Cup including Emma Raducanu, Naomi Osaka, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Stan Wawrinka, who has said 2026 will be his last year on tour.
Wawrinka, 40, a three-time Grand Slam champion, said he hopes to improve his current ranking of 157 and return to the top 100 before retiring. His highest ranking was No. 3 when he won the 2014 Australian Open.
“I’m happy with the decision (to retire) and at peace with it,” Wawrinka said upon arriving in Perth earlier this week.
Joining Sabalenka at the 500 Brisbane International are two-time Grand Slam finalist Amanda Anisimova, WTA Finals champion Elena Rybakina, defending Australian Open champion Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva.
Andreeva, 18, is expected to be the next big thing in women’s tennis and could renew her rivalry with Sabalenka in Brisbane. Sabalenka led 4-2 in the head-to-head match, but world No. 9 Andreeva won the 2025 Indian Wells final in three sets.
The Russian also reached the quarter-finals of last year’s French Open and Wimbledon, and the semi-finals of Roland Garros in 2024, when at 17 she became the youngest person to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam since Martina Hingis at the 1997 US Open.
“Maybe there’s a bit of competition (with Sabalenka), but unfortunately … she’s in the lead at the moment,” Andreeva told Australia’s Associated Press this week.
Andreeva lost to Sabalenka in the 2025 semifinals in Brisbane and again in the fourth round of the Australian Open before winning in Indian Wells to become the youngest winner since Serena Williams.
“It gives me a lot of confidence. Winning Indian Wells is a milestone in my career so far,” she said.
In the second week of warm-up matches, the ATP-WTA Adelaide International featuring 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic will be held from January 12 to 17, and the WTA 250 Championship will also be held in Hobart, Australia.
Auckland, New Zealand will host the WTA Championships from January 5-11, followed by the ATP at the same venue from January 12-17. Kyrgios and Frances Tiafoe are scheduled to play an exhibition match at Kooyong in Melbourne just days before the start of the Australian Open.
As the only warm-up event held outside Australia or New Zealand, Hong Kong will host the ATP event from January 5-11.
The ATP event will introduce a new rule in 2026 to address extreme heat during men’s matches, allowing a 10-minute break in best-of-three singles matches, similar to the WTA’s rule more than 30 years ago.
