Men's singlesCarlos Alcarazbeat Novak Djokovic, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5
Grand Slam guide 2027 Jan 17 - 31
Australian Open: 2027 Dates, 2026 Prize Money and Past Winners
The first major of the season, with two weeks of hard-court tennis at Melbourne Park in the middle of the Australian summer, three stadiums with retractable roofs and the biggest winner's cheque the tournament has ever paid.
- Countdown
- 76days to the 2027 Australian Open, January 17 - 31, 2027
- Champion's cheque
- A$4.15Mabout $2.92M, 2026 singles
- Total purse
- A$111.5M2026, about $78.3M
Photo: Gracchus250, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons
Australian Open dates
When the Australian Open is played
In briefThe 2027 Australian Open runs from January 17, 2027 to January 31, 2027. The 2026 edition ran January 18 - February 1, 2026, with the women's final on a Saturday night and the men's final on the closing Sunday.
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Australian OpenRoland GarrosWimbledonUS Open 16weeks3weeks7weeks
- Australian OpenJanuary 17 to January 31
- Roland GarrosMay 23 to June 6
- WimbledonJune 28 to July 11
- US OpenAugust 29 to September 12
The shortest gap is Paris to London: 3 weeks between the last day of one and the first of the next.
- First held1905121 editions' worth of history
- SurfaceHardBlue cushioned acrylic hard court
- WhereMelbourneMelbourne Park
- Main court15,000seats, Rod Laver Arena
- Singles draw128players, men and women
- Next editionJanuary 17 - 31in 76 days
- 2027 main draw
- January 17 - 31Starts Sunday
- 2027 finals
- January 30 - 31Women's final first, men's final last
- 2026 edition
- January 18 - February 1Main draw; finals on the last two nights
The Australian Open opens the Grand Slam year in the second half of January, in the hottest stretch of the Melbourne summer. The main draw starts on a Sunday and runs for 15 days, a format Tennis Australia introduced in 2024 to take late finishes out of the first week. Qualifying and Opening Week come first, so the gates at Melbourne Park are open for about three weeks in all.
The timing shapes the whole tour. Players fly in around Christmas, warm up at the United Cup or in Brisbane, Adelaide and Auckland, and arrive in Melbourne with only a handful of matches behind them. That is one reason early-round upsets are common here. Our tennis calendar shows the lead-in events week by week.
Australian Open prize money
Australian Open prize money by round
In briefThe 2026 purse was A$111.5M (about $78.3M). Each singles champion took A$4,150,000, roughly $2.92M, and a first-round loser left with A$150,000.
- ChampionA$4,150,000about $2.92M
- Runner-upA$2,150,000about $1.51M
- SemifinalA$1,250,000about $878K
- QuarterfinalA$750,000about $527K
- Fourth roundA$480,000about $337K
- Third roundA$327,750about $230K
- Second roundA$225,000about $158K
- First roundA$150,000about $105K
Figures in Australian dollars as published by Tennis Australia for the singles draws. US dollar values use GBP 1 = $1.3399, EUR 1 = $1.1172, A$1 = $0.7025 (ECB reference rates, October 30, 2026).
Try it
What does each round pay?
ChampionA$4,150,000about $2.92M27.7x a first-round cheque
Australian Open prize money has grown faster than at any other major over the past decade. The 2026 purse of A$111.5 million was 16% up on the A$96.5 million paid in 2025, and the champion's cheque rose by about a fifth, from A$3.5 million. Tennis Australia has put a large share of each increase into the early rounds and qualifying, so a player who loses in the first round of qualifying still leaves with A$40,500, enough to cover a season of travel for many players ranked outside the top 150.
The ladder above shows the shape of it. The champion earns about 28 times what a first-round loser takes home, a far flatter curve than the winner-takes-most structure of a regular tour event. Doubles and mixed doubles are paid on separate, smaller scales. For the other majors in one view, see our tennis prize money guide.
Versus the other Slams
Australian Open prize money compared with the other Grand Slams
In briefThe four majors side by side: the champion's cheque in US dollars at the latest exchange rate, with the first-round cheque and the total purse of each.
- 1 US Open 2026 Champion$5.5M First round$140K Total purse$108M
- 2 Wimbledon 2026 ChampionGBP 3.6M First round$107K Total purse$86M
- 3 Roland Garros 2026 ChampionEUR 2.8M First round$97K Total purse$69M
- 4 Australian Open 2026 ChampionA$4.15M First round$105K Total purse$78.3M
Australian Open winners
Australian Open winners, the last five years
In briefCarlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina are the reigning champions after the 2026 finals. Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka each won the title twice between 2022 and 2026.
2026 champions
Women's singlesElena Rybakinabeat Aryna Sabalenka, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
| Year | Men's singles | Women's singles |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | | |
| 2025 |  |  |
| 2024 | |  |
| 2023 |  | |
| 2022 |  |  |
Photos, cropped, from Wikimedia Commons: Carlos Alcaraz by 12121343A (CC BY-SA 4.0, source); Elena Rybakina by Hameltion (CC BY-SA 4.0, source); Jannik Sinner by Hameltion (CC BY-SA 4.0, source); Madison Keys by Tatiana from Moscow, Russia (CC BY-SA 2.0, source); Aryna Sabalenka by Ocoudis (CC0 1.0, source); Novak Djokovic by AndrewHenkelman (CC BY-SA 4.0, source); Rafael Nadal by Yann Caradec (CC BY-SA 2.0, source); Ashleigh Barty by Carine06 from UK (CC BY-SA 2.0, source).
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The 2026 men's final completed a set for Carlos Alcaraz. At 22 he became the youngest man to win all four majors, beating Novak Djokovic, the ten-time champion, in four sets. A night earlier Elena Rybakina came back from 0-3 in the deciding set to beat Aryna Sabalenka and become the first Kazakh player to win in Melbourne. The 2025 women's final is still the one people bring up first. Madison Keys beat Sabalenka, then a two-time defending champion, 7-5 in the third set for her first major at 29.
Melbourne Park
Melbourne Park and its show courts
In briefThe Australian Open has been played at Melbourne Park since 1988. Its three stadiums all have retractable roofs, so the main courts keep playing through rain and extreme heat.
Melbourne Park sits a short walk from Flinders Street station, between the city centre and the sports grounds along the Yarra. It opened as Flinders Park in 1988 and took its current name in 1996. Before that, the tournament moved between cities in Australia and New Zealand for decades and was played on grass; its first edition, in 1905, was the Australasian Championships at a cricket ground in Melbourne.
Rod Laver Arena, with about 15,000 seats, was the first Grand Slam stadium with a roof that could close, decades before Wimbledon or Roland Garros built theirs. The roofs are there for heat as much as rain. Under the tournament's heat stress scale, play on the outside courts is suspended at the top level and the stadium roofs close, which is why a hot afternoon in Melbourne can turn a scheduled outdoor match into an indoor one. Attendance keeps climbing, and the 2026 tournament drew a record 1,368,043 visitors over three weeks.
How it works
How the Australian Open works
In brief128 players in each singles draw, seven rounds to the title. Men play best of five sets, women best of three, and a deciding set at 6-6 ends in a first-to-10 tiebreak.
Each singles draw has 128 places: 104 or so go to direct entries by ranking, 16 to qualifiers and a handful to wildcards chosen by the organizers. The top 32 are seeded so that they cannot meet before the third round. Winning the title takes seven matches in 15 days. The men play them over best of five sets and the women over best of three, a split explained in why women play three sets at the majors.
The final-set rule changed more often here than anywhere. Melbourne introduced a first-to-10 tiebreak at 6-6 in the deciding set in 2019, while the other majors still had their own formats; since 2022 all four Slams use the same rule. The men's matches stay best of five, which is why a deep run in Melbourne can cost a player the following weeks of the tour.
Records
The Australian Open record book
In briefNovak Djokovic's ten men's titles and Margaret Court's eleven women's titles are the marks no one is close to. The 2012 final between Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, 5 hours 53 minutes, is still the longest Grand Slam final ever played.
Australian Open recordsSingles; times in hours and minutes
- 10Most men's singles titlesNovak Djokovic
- 11Most women's singles titlesMargaret Court
- 7Most women's titles, Open EraSerena Williams
- 5:53Longest Grand Slam finalDjokovic d. Nadal, 2012
- 5:27Longest semifinal at Melbourne ParkAlcaraz d. Zverev, 2026
That 2012 final finished after 1:30 a.m., and both players were too tired to stand for the trophy speeches, so chairs were brought onto the court. The 2026 semifinal between Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev came close to the same territory at 5 hours 27 minutes. More on the all-time marks in our tennis records section, and on the champions who won latest in their careers, in Melbourne and elsewhere, in our list of the oldest Grand Slam winners.
How to watch
How to watch the Australian Open in the US
In briefESPN has the US rights and streams every court on the ESPN app. Melbourne runs 16 hours ahead of the US East Coast in January.
- Australian Open
with every court streaming on the ESPN app Source
US broadcast lines checked October 21, 2026. Rights outside the US differ by country. Network logos are trademarks of their owners, shown only to identify the broadcaster; we are not affiliated with them.
- TV and streaming
- ESPN, with every court streaming on the ESPN app. ESPN2 and ESPN carry the linear coverage, and the finals air live in the early hours of the weekend morning, US time.
- Night sessions
- The Melbourne night session starts at 7 pm local time, which is 3 am Eastern. Day sessions from 11 am local run through the US evening.
- Results overnight
- If you sleep through it, the official order of play and the draws on the tournament site are updated after every match.
Tickets
Australian Open tickets, in brief
In briefTickets for the next edition go on public sale in August through Ticketmaster. A ground pass is the cheapest way in; arena tickets add a reserved seat in one stadium session.
For 2027 the public sale opened on August 13, 2026, after presales that started in late July. A ground pass started at A$49 in the early-bird period and gives access to the outside courts, the practice courts, the big screens and the festival areas; the number of ground passes per day was capped for the first time. Arena tickets cover one session, day or night, in one of the three stadiums. The first week is where a ground pass pays off, because seeded players spread across all the outside courts, and you can stand three rows from them.
FAQ
Australian Open questions, answered
In briefThe questions people search most about the Australian Open, answered from the same data as the tables above.
When is the Australian Open 2027?
The 2027 Australian Open runs from January 17, 2027 to January 31, 2027. Opening Week, with qualifying and practice open to fans, fills the days before the main draw at Melbourne Park.
How much does the winner of the Australian Open get?
The 2026 singles champions each received A$4,150,000, about $2.92M at the as-of exchange rate on this page. The runner-up took A$2,150,000 and a first-round loser A$150,000.
Who won the Australian Open in 2026?
Carlos Alcaraz won the men's title, beating Novak Djokovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5. Elena Rybakina won the women's title against Aryna Sabalenka, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Who has won the most Australian Open titles?
Novak Djokovic holds the men's record with ten singles titles. Margaret Court won eleven women's titles, most of them before the Open Era; Serena Williams has the Open Era record with seven.
Where is the Australian Open played?
At Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, a tennis precinct on the edge of the city centre. The main courts are Rod Laver Arena, John Cain Arena and Margaret Court Arena, all three with retractable roofs.
What surface is the Australian Open played on?
A blue cushioned acrylic hard court. Melbourne Park opened in 1988 with hard courts, and the current surface comes from GreenSet, the supplier since 2020.
Do men and women get the same prize money at the Australian Open?
Yes. Tennis Australia announced equal prize money in October 2000, and it has applied since the 2001 tournament. The prize money table is the same for both singles draws.
How long does the Australian Open last?
The main draw runs for 15 days from a Sunday start, a format introduced in 2024. With qualifying and Opening Week the event fills about three weeks of January.
How do I watch the Australian Open in the US?
ESPN, with every court streaming on the ESPN app. Melbourne is 16 hours ahead of New York during the tournament, so the night sessions play during the US morning and the day sessions overnight.
When do Australian Open tickets go on sale?
For the 2027 tournament, the public sale opened on August 13, 2026 through Ticketmaster, after presales from late July. A ground pass, which covers the outside courts and the big screens, started at A$49.