The 2026 Australian Open is into the third round now with two Australians remaining in the draw. They are Alex de Minaur of Sydney (the sixth seed on the men’s side), and qualifier Maddison Inglis of Perth, who is the only Australian woman left in the singles draw.
de Minaur beat lucky loser Mackenzie McDonald of the United States 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round, and Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia 6-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in the second round. de Minaur was to play Matteo Berrettini of Italy in the first round. It was initially considered one of the five best first round matches. However, Berrettini, the 2021 Wimbledon finalist, withdrew with an oblique injury according to the Canadian Press.
In de Minaur’s first round match, he had nine aces compared to seven for McDonald. de Minaur also won 85% of his first serve points, 75% of his second serve points, and broke McDonald six times. McDonald only won 58% of his first serve points, 47% of his second serve points and dies not break de Minaur once. In the second round, de Minaur broke Medjedovic seven times, and made fewer serving mistakes. de Minaur only had four double faults, while Medjedovic had 11 double faults.
Inglis got through qualifying, and beat fellow Australian Kim Birrell of Gold Coast in the first round by a score of 7-6, 6-7, 6-4. Inglis only had one double fault, while Birrell had seven double faults. Then in the second round, Inglis beat Laura Siegemund of Germany, 6-4, 6-7, 7-6.
In the third round, de Minaur will next face Frances Tiafoe of the United States, the 29th seed, and two-time United States Open semifinalist (2022 and 2024). de Minaur is 3-1 all-time. Inglis will next face Japan’s Naomi Osaka, the 16th seed, and four-time grand slam champion (2018 and 2020 United States Open and 2019 and 2021 Australian Open). This is their first ever meeting.
