Australian Open 2027 gets the Grand Slam season under way on 11 January. Opening Week is set aside for qualifying and exhibition matches, and the main draw starts on Sunday 17 January. It’s the fourth year running the tournament has begun on a Sunday. The finals are set for 30 and 31 January and, as usual, will be played on Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park.
European fans know Melbourne as overnight broadcasts and morning recaps. If you’re watching from Helsinki, the day session falls in the dead of night while the evening matches roll into breakfast, so plenty of people follow the tennis on their mobiles with one eye on the bookies’ live markets. On nights like these most of the action goes through live betting, and between sets some fans open https://wildtokyopokies.bet/ for a few rounds of roulette or live blackjack while the balls are being changed on court. Online pokies and sports betting share the same sleepless audience.
What 2026 left behind
In the men’s final, Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic to win his first Australian Open. With that win the Spaniard became the youngest man ever to complete the career Grand Slam, and Don Budge’s old record finally went. Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka for the women’s title, leaving Sabalenka with a second straight losing final in Melbourne.
Each champion took home A$4.15 million, with A$2.15 million going to each runner-up. The organisers also reported record attendance. Prize money for 2027 hasn’t been announced yet.
Men: Alcaraz against the field
Alcaraz is probably still the favourite. He already holds all four majors, and his speed and drop shots are every bit as dangerous on Melbourne’s hard courts. Mind you, 2026 showed nobody gets to sit back. Alexander Zverev picked up two Grand Slam titles, the US Open among them, and I reckon that rattled a few people.
If I had to pick his closest rivals, I’d go with Jannik Sinner, the Melbourne winner in 2024 and 2025. Then there’s Zverev, who got past Ben Shelton in the New York final. Don’t write off Novak Djokovic either. He has ten Australian titles and 24 majors to his name, and although the Serb turns 40 in May 2027, last year’s final showed he can still play at this level. Shelton, with that big serve, is capable of ruining anyone’s night.
Then there’s the question of who comes out of the off-season in what sort of form. The early rounds often throw up surprises. Among the possible bolters I’d keep an eye on Jakub Mensik and Joao Fonseca, while the home crowd will be right behind Alex de Minaur.
Women: Rybakina and Sabalenka
The women’s draw looks like the next instalment of a long-running rivalry. In 2026 Rybakina beat Sabalenka in both hard-court major finals. She did it in Melbourne first, then again in New York. The Kazakh is back to defend her title. On these hard courts her serve is, in my book, still about the nastiest shot on the women’s tour.
Sabalenka has won the Australian Open twice (2023, 2024) and made the final four years in a row. Losing twice to the same player in the season’s biggest matches hurts, but my guess is it only fires her up.
Who else Helsinki fans should watch
Tennis fans in Helsinki want more from the Australian Open than the top favourites going head to head. From what I’ve seen, Finnish viewers lean towards the European players. They also love anyone who turns up from nowhere and has a real go at the top spots.
Daniil Medvedev has made three finals in Melbourne (2021, 2022, 2024) without ever winning the title. The 2022 one against Rafael Nadal still stings, I’d imagine: Medvedev took the first two sets and somehow lost anyway. His results have been patchy for a couple of seasons now. Still, he knows hard courts better than most, so I wouldn’t ignore him.
Andrey Rublev has a fair few Grand Slam quarter-finals behind him. Karen Khachanov, if you remember, got to the semis here in 2023. Both can cause trouble for higher-ranked opponents.
In the women’s draw, Mirra Andreeva, Diana Shnaider and Liudmila Samsonova are worth following. And of course there’s Elena Rybakina, back in Melbourne as defending champion.
Scandinavian players add extra interest for viewers in Finland. Even if no Finns make the main draw, local fans can still follow players from neighbouring countries, along with Europe’s leading names.
Format and rules
Nothing new here. The singles draw has 128 players, and 16 of those spots go to qualifiers. Matches are best-of-five sets for the men and best-of-three for the women. If the deciding set gets to 6-all, they play a 10-point tiebreak. All the Slams have used that rule since 2022.
The big show courts are Rod Laver Arena (around 15,000 spectators), Margaret Court Arena (around 7,500) and John Cain Arena (around 10,500), going by the official capacity figures. All three have retractable roofs. January temperatures sometimes top 35°C, so stamina counts for a lot, and the AO Heat Stress Policy applies on the outside courts.
What to expect from the tournament
Alcaraz and Sinner are still strong contenders, but after Zverev’s year their edge can’t be taken for granted. On the women’s side Rybakina has a title to defend and Sabalenka will want revenge. Behind them there’s a whole pack of contenders, so neither of them gets an easy fortnight. The draw should come out in mid-January. Once it’s out, we’ll see who’s copped the rough path to the final.
