Australian Open 2027: dates, courts and players
Opening Week starts on 11 January and the main draw on 17 January. A guide to the three weeks at Melbourne Park and the players defending titles.
The 2027 Australian Open runs at Melbourne Park from Monday 11 January to Sunday 31 January 2027. That three-week span covers Opening Week, which includes qualifying, from 11 to 16 January, then the main draw from Sunday 17 January. The singles finals are on the last weekend, 30 and 31 January. It is the first Grand Slam event of the year; our Australian sports calendar shows what else is on in January.
What happens in each week
Opening Week, 11 to 16 January
The whole precinct opens on Monday 11 January. Opening Week is when the qualifying tournament is played, with players outside the direct entry cut-off competing for the last places in the singles draws. Tournament organisers have not yet published the exact qualifying days for 2027. In 2026 qualifying ran over four days in the week before the main draw.
Opening Week also has open practice sessions at Rod Laver Arena, player appearances and entertainment at the Grand Slam Oval, and charity matches, which are ticketed separately. The final of the AO 1 Point Slam, the one-point knockout in which professionals play amateurs and wildcards for a $1 million prize, is on Wednesday 13 January at Rod Laver Arena. Ground passes for Opening Week cost $10 for adults and $5 for children, and children get in free on the first day.
Crowds for this part of the event have grown quickly. Opening Week 2026 drew 217,999 people, close to double the 2025 figure, and the whole event passed 1.3 million.
Main draw, 17 to 31 January
Main draw play begins on Sunday 17 January, the same Sunday start used in 2026, which spreads the first round over three days. The singles draws have 128 players each. The first week takes them through the early rounds, and the second week has the fourth round, quarter-finals and semi-finals, with doubles, mixed doubles, junior and wheelchair events running alongside. By tradition the women's singles final is played on the Saturday night and the men's final on the Sunday night.
The show courts
Melbourne Park has been the tournament's home since 1988, when it moved from the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, which had become too small. Three of its arenas have retractable roofs, so play on them can continue through rain or extreme heat.
| Court | Approx. capacity | Opened | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rod Laver Arena | 14,800 | 1988 | Retractable |
| John Cain Arena | 10,300 | 2000 | Retractable |
| Margaret Court Arena | 7,500 | 1988 | Retractable |
| Kia Arena | 5,000 | 2021 | None |
Rod Laver Arena is the main stadium and hosts the singles finals. John Cain Arena, previously known as Hisense Arena and Melbourne Arena, also hosts the AO LIVE concert series, which ran over five nights in 2026 and is due to return in 2027. Margaret Court Arena got its roof and an extra 1,500 seats before the 2015 tournament.
For 2027, organisers have announced a new Mega Grandstand at Court 6, the largest temporary grandstand ever built at Melbourne Park, and a Grand Slam Oval with a footprint 45 per cent larger and three times the shade.
The defending champions
The 2026 tournament, played from 18 January to 1 February, produced two singles champions who had never won in Melbourne before.
| Event | 2026 champion | Final |
|---|---|---|
| Men's singles | Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) | beat Novak Djokovic 2-6 6-2 6-3 7-5 |
| Women's singles | Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) | beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 4-6 6-4 |
| Men's doubles | Christian Harrison and Neal Skupski | USA and Great Britain |
| Women's doubles | Elise Mertens and Zhang Shuai | Belgium and China |
| Mixed doubles | Olivia Gadecki and John Peers | beat Kristina Mladenovic and Manuel Guinard 4-6 6-3 10-8 |
Alcaraz's win ended Djokovic's perfect record in Australian Open finals, which had stood at ten wins from ten. Rybakina's victory was her second major title. As announced in October 2026, Alcaraz is entered in the AO 1 Point Slam during Opening Week, along with world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka.
Australians to watch
Alex de Minaur is the leading Australian. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 5 in July 2026 and was still inside the ATP top ten in October 2026. His home Grand Slam event has been hard on him: in 2026 he reached the quarter-finals again and lost in straight sets to Alcaraz, his seventh Grand Slam quarter-final without a semi-final.
Gadecki and Peers will defend the mixed doubles title they have won two years running. In 2026 they became the first pair to win back-to-back Australian Open mixed titles since Jana Novotna and Jim Pugh in 1988 and 1989.
Among the women, Maya Joint reached a career-high No. 28 in February 2026. Daria Kasatkina, who played her first Australian Open as an Australian citizen in 2026, has had a difficult season and fallen down the rankings. Nick Kyrgios is eligible to play after his anti-doping suspension ended in September, but as of late October 2026 he had not committed to any event this summer; our Kyrgios explainer has the background.
Tickets
All tickets are sold through Ticketmaster. The general public sale opened on 13 August 2026 after a run of pre-sales, earlier than in previous years. Early-bird pricing on ground passes runs until 12.59pm on 30 November 2026, and organisers have said ground pass numbers may be capped on the busiest days.
How to watch
The Nine Network holds the Australian broadcast rights until 2029 under a five-year deal with Tennis Australia. Matches are shown free on Nine's channels and the 9Now app, and on the subscription service Stan Sport, which streams the tournament in 4K. The same deal covers the lead-up events, including the United Cup, the Adelaide International and the Hobart International.
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