Elena Rybakina defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the final, 6–4, 4–6, 6–4 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2026 Australian Open. It was her second major title. Rybakina was the fourth woman (after Jennifer Capriati, Serena Williams, and Madison Keys) since the establishment of the WTA rankings to defeat both the world No. 1 and No. 2 players en route to the Australian Open title. The final was a rematch of the 2023 final, won by Sabalenka.

Keys was the defending champion, but lost in the fourth round to Jessica Pegula.

Sabalenka was the first woman to reach four consecutive Australian Open women's singles finals since Martina Hingis in 2000. Sabalenka and Rybakina both reached the final without losing a set en route, the first time both finalists at a major did so since Serena and Venus Williams at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships.

Aged 45 years and 7 months old, Venus Williams became the oldest woman to compete in the singles main draw at the Australian Open, surpassing the previous record set by Kimiko Date in 2015. The first round match between Karolína Plíšková and Sloane Stephens was the first major main draw match contested between two players ranked outside the top 1,000 since the current WTA Tour format was established in 1990.

Zeynep Sönmez became the first Turkish woman to record a win at the event and the first Turkish player to advance to the third round. This was the first Australian Open to have four Americans in the quarterfinals since 2001. For the first time in the Open Era, the top six seeds reached the quarterfinals in both the women's and men's singles competitions.

Seeds

Draw

Finals

Top half

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Bottom half

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Championship match statistics Category Rybakina Sabalenka 1st serve % 54/98 (55%) 53/86 (62%) 1st serve points won41 of 54 = 76% 40 of 53 = 75% 2nd serve points won 21 of 44 = 48% 16 of 33 = 48% Total service points won 62 of 98 = 63.27% 56 of 86 = 65.12% Aces6 5 Double faults 3 2 Winners 28 35 Unforced errors25 26 Net points won 10 of 15 = 67% 8 of 10 = 80% Break points converted 3 of 6 = 50% 2 of 8 = 25% Return points won 28 of 86 = 33% 33 of 98 = 34% Total points won 92 92Source

Seeded players The following are the seeded players, based on WTA rankings as of 12 January 2026. Rankings and points before are as of 19 January 2026.

Because the tournament took place one week later this year, points defending also included tournaments that took place during the week of 27 January 2025 (Linz and Singapore), which were replaced by the player's next best result.

Seed Rank Player Points before Points defending Points won Points after Status 1 1 Aryna Sabalenka† 10,990 1,300 1,300 10,990 Final lost to Elena Rybakina 2 2 Iga Świątek 8,328 780 430 7,978 Quarterfinals lost to Elena Rybakina 3 3 Coco Gauff 6,423 430 430 6,423 Quarterfinals lost to Elina Svitolina 4 4 Amanda Anisimova 6,320 70 430 6,680 Quarterfinals lost to Jessica Pegula 5 5 Elena Rybakina‡ 5,850 240 2,000 7,610 Champion, defeated Aryna Sabalenka 6 6 Jessica Pegula 5,453 130 780 6,103 Semifinals lost to Elena Rybakina 7 8 Jasmine Paolini 4,267 130 130 4,267 Third round lost to Iva Jovic 8 7 Mirra Andreeva 4,731 240 240 4,731 Fourth round lost to Elina Svitolina 9 9 Madison Keys 4,111 2,000 240 2,351 Fourth round lost to Jessica Pegula 10 10 Belinda Bencic 3,512 240 70 3,342 Second round lost to Nikola Bartůňková [Q] 11 11 3,375 10+500 10+108 2,983 First round lost to Zeynep Sönmez [Q] 12 12 Elina Svitolina 2,856 430+1 780+0 3,205 Semifinals lost to Aryna Sabalenka 13 13 Linda Nosková 2,641 10 130 2,761 Third round lost to Wang Xinyu 14 14 Clara Tauson 2,530 130+195 130+10 2,345 Third round lost to Victoria Mboko 15 15 Emma Navarro 2,515 430 10 2,095 First round lost to Magda Linette 16 17 Naomi Osaka 2,366 130 130 2,366 17 16 Victoria Mboko 2,447 (35+78) 240+32 2,606 Fourth round lost to Aryna Sabalenka 18 18 Liudmila Samsonova 2,122 70 10 2,062 First round lost to Laura Siegemund 19 19 Karolína Muchová 2,083 70+195 240+0 2,058 Fourth round lost to Coco Gauff 20 20 Marta Kostyuk 1,983 130 10 1,863 First round lost to Elsa Jacquemot 21 21 Elise Mertens 1,956 70+250 240+60 1,936 Fourth round lost to Elena Rybakina 22 23 Leylah Fernandez 1,821 130 10 1,701 First round lost to Janice Tjen 23 22 Diana Shnaider 1,953 130 130 1,953 Third round lost to Elina Svitolina 24 24 Jeļena Ostapenko 1,741 10 70 1,801 Second round lost to Wang Xinyu 25 26 Paula Badosa 1,676 780 70 966 26 28 Dayana Yastremska 1,610 130+325 10+10 1,175 27 30 Sofia Kenin 1,567 10 10 1,567 First round lost to Peyton Stearns 28 29 Emma Raducanu 1,607 130 70 1,547 29 27 Iva Jovic 1,671 70 430 2,031 Quarterfinals lost to Aryna Sabalenka 30 31 Maya Joint 1,549 10 10 1,549 First round lost to Tereza Valentová 31 33 Anna Kalinskaya 1,511 0+98 130+32 1,575 Third round lost to Iga Świątek 32 34 Markéta Vondroušová 1,446 0 0 1,446 Withdrew due to shoulder injury

Withdrawn seeded players

The following players would have been seeded, but withdrew before the tournament began.

Rank Player Points before Points defending Points after Withdrawal reason 25 Zheng Qinwen 1,728 70 1,658 Right elbow injury 32 Veronika Kudermetova 1,517 240 1,277 Personal reasons

Other entry information Wildcards The following players received wildcards into the women's singles main draw:

Protected ranking

Qualifiers

Lucky loser

Withdrawals The entry list was released based on the WTA rankings for the week of 8 December 2025, which was the usual cutoff deadline date. † – not included on entry list ‡ – withdrew from entry list § – withdrew from main draw

Source:

Notes

References

External links Draw