2026 Australian Open women’s draw: Coco Gauff could face Venus Williams, American trio in bottom quarter

MELBOURNE, Australia—The 2026 Australian Open women’s draw was revealed, with fans circling a potentially iconic second-round clash between No. 3 seed Coco Gauff and former world No. 1 Venus Williams, who is making her 22nd appearance in Melbourne.

DRAWS: 2026 Australian Open, men's and women's singles

Williams and Gauff famously faced off at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships, where a then-teenaged Gauff won her first Grand Slam match at 15 years old.

Williams, 45, hasn’t played the Australian Open since 2021, but kicked off a surprising return to action last summer that has seen her play tennis that belied her age and time off tour. Playing a full Australian schedule, she entered the ASB Classic and Hobart International and impressed despite losses to Magda Linette and Tatjana Maria.

The two-time finalist will first have to get past rising Serbian star Olga Danilovic, while Gauff will open against Kamilla Rakhimova.

Gauff and Williams are in the same half of the draw as top seed Aryna Sabalenka, who won back-to-back Australian Open titles in 2023 and 2024 and finished runner-up to Madison Keys in 2025. The world No. 1 made an unbeaten start to the year by defending her Brisbane International title and will play her first round against French wild card Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah. A potentially tricky second round also looms for Sabalenka, who could play a rematch of her 2025 quarterfinal against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

The bottom half of the draw features a stacked third quarter with three Americans competing for one spot in the semifinals. Defending champion Keys, seeded ninth, is the projected fourth-round opponent of No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula, while the winner would be projected to play No. 4 seed Amanda Anisimova. Anisimova is playing her first Australian Open since reaching back-to-back major finals at Wimbledon and the US Open; she will open against Switzerland’s Simona Wiltert with 2020 champion Sofia Kenin as a possible third-round opponent.

No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek rounds out the draw and while she opens against a qualifier, her road could get very tough in the fourth round with two-time champion Naomi Osaka in her section. Osaka last lifted a major trophy at the 2021 Australian Open, but ended the 2025 Grand Slam season with a run to the US Open semifinals. She will play her first round against Antonia Ruzic.