2026 Week 2

Heating Up Down Under

Jan 11, 2026

We may only be in week 2 of the new season, but things heat up quickly in tennis. Australian Open Qualifying will kick off this week in addition to three events: Adelaide (ATP/WTA), Auckland (ATP), and Hobart (WTA).

Want to include another reminder for potential TC Plus subscribers, the price will increase to $11.99/month at the end of January (looks like yearly cost remains $109).

Australian Open Qualifying will head over to ESPN streaming as it has in past years. ESPN also dropped its on air talent for the Australian Open, with some switches to its commentary team. One thing to call out though is that ESPN did revamp its subscription options last fall, and finding the ESPN Plus only subscription is a bit harder than usual. You’ll need to sign up in the app or via ESPN.com/watch. You’ll need to scroll and select “Explore Plans” to find the ESPN Select Option (this was formalling known as ESPN Plus). It’ll probably take a little bit longer to navigate to you may want to sign up early or double check if ESPN Plus is part of any of your existing subscriptions (Disney/Hulu).

Adelaide, Auckland, and Hobart will all be on Tennis Channel for the week. In addition, Tennis Channel will air the Australian Open 1 Point Slam ( 2:00pm on 1/14) and the Australian Open Opening Ceremony (3:00am on 1/17).

The Australian Open Draw Ceremony will stream live on its YouTube Page and Facebook. Timing wise it’ll begin 2:30pm on 1/15 in Melbourne, so for those in the states, check out the below for start times:

Melbourne, Australia Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 2:30 pm AEDT

Eastern Time, ET Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 10:30 pm EST

Central Time, CT Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 9:30 pm CST

Mountain Time, MT Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 8:30 pm MST

Pacific Time, PT Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 7:30 pm PST

Tennis Watchers Content Corner

A semi-regular feature coming to Tennis Watchers is the Tennis Watchers Content Corner. The goal will be to highlight and share Tennis Apps, Journalists, Podcasts, etc. Tennis Watchers will always keep it basic, so we want to keep sharing more tennis outlets for the readers!

This week let’s highlight is Tick Tock Tennis, which launched a great daily newsletter in 2026. It features fast facts for tennis nerds, and each day you an expect a new topic delivered to your inbox (accompanied by great infographics!). Follow on Bluesky, Instagram, or Threads too for match result updates throughout the day!

Adelaide

ATP Singles Defending Champion: Felix Auger-Aliassime
ATP Singles Top Seed: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
WTA Singles Defending Champion: Madison Keys
WTA Singles Top Seed: Madison Keys