Let’s just say, you can’t make a tradition if you don’t start it. I expect this to be a permanent addition.
It starts 7pm AEDT and will broadcast in delay on Nine, despite what 9Now misleadingly claimed up until this morning.
It does not. The women’s final is on now. The men’s is at 3.30pm AEDT.
Clear air for the AOOC.
The world no.1’s will headline Day 1 of the 2026 Australian Open when Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka take centre stage in night session on the 9Network, with coverage live and free tomorrow - Sunday, January 18 from 10.00am AEDT.
Sabalenka leads off the night session as she sets her sights on a third AO title, while Alcaraz begins his campaign for the only grand slam trophy missing from his cabinet straight afterwards on Channel 9.
Throughout the day session, the Aussie contingent of Talia Gibson , Tristan Schoolkate and Jason Kubler will embrace the underdog spirit when they take on their higher ranked opponents, all before Adam Walton faces a herculean task against Alcaraz under lights on Rod Laver Arena.
Men’s world no.3 and 2025 Australian Open runner up Alexander Zverev , women’s world no.7 Jasmine Paolini and former women’s world no.3 Maria Sakkari, begin their AO26 journeys during the day session on 9Now, where every match is available to stream live and free.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion, Venus Williams, is out to prove age is just a number in the night session on 9Gem, when the 45-year-old tour veteran becomes the oldest women to compete in the main draw of the Australian Open. Williams was a finalist in 2003 and 2017 and will compete as a wildcard this year.
Expert commentary throughout the tournament will be provided by Jim Courier, Jelena Dokic, John McEnroe, Todd Woodbridge, Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Stosur, Dylan Alcott, John Millman, Casey Dellacqua, Sam Smith and Alicia Molik.
Throughout the 2026 Australian Open, fans will have the ability to watch every point of every match, live and free on the device of their choosing on 9Now.
As expected, Nine going down the Aussie route in KIA Arena’s day session. Probably after 9Gem’s day card wraps up, they’ll air Norrie to bridge the gap.
Wonder what the contingency plan is if - and this is near-certain with two #1 vs. unseeded matchups - Nine’s nightcap ends before 9Gem’s.
Matteo Berrettini has withdrawn from Monday’s match (Alex de Minaur), some early luck for the top Australian and not sure what impact this’ll have for D2’s order of play nor Nine’s line-up
Not sure this was the best AR execution. The ceremony itself really lasted 30 minutes then moving on to the exhibition match.
Don’t think the match (currently scheduled as second on RLA in the afternoon session) will switch timeslots/arenas; Berrettini will simply be replaced by a lucky loser.
Though there was a case in 2022 when Novak Djokovic was withdrawn from the tournament (some of us might remember what happened then, when he was deported from the country on “humanitarian grounds” or something to that effect, due to not being vaccinated against COVID-19), he was replaced by a lucky loser and the match was moved to another court.
And the lucky loser will be Mackenzie McDonald.
Who notably defeated defending champion Rafael Nadal in the second round of the 2023 tournament.
Nine should have advertised the exhibition match more - rather than the “opening ceremony”.
Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter are playing against Andrew Agassi and Roger Federer in the Doubles Match. Now they are big names.
Early Carols reunion? 
Guess they are in the Nine family or just a coincidental choice by TA or both. Also a connection with Woodbridge’s son Beau, a singer who performed with Hobson previously.
I think they did, all four names were prominent in their promos and Federer’s image was plastered on their end-tag including “with Roger Federer”.
When recapping the Federer vs Agassi QF from 2005, footage from Seven (including the 7 SPORT watermark) was used.
AFAIK, Nine used to (or can only) air world-feed footage from before 2018, when looking back at old matches.
Because that’s what the world feed showed. Nine’s restriction may still be in place today for self-produced coverage.
Sophie Monk narrated the opening montage. No graphic changes this year.
What was made for 1PS stayed with it.
Well looks like they were willing to make such a minor change for a single night. The scorebug I get, but why they would go to the effort of doing rounded corners on all their graphics just for the night seems odd.
Anyway, they are still looking pretty fresh in their third year.
