Australian Open Day 2 recap: Alex Eala’s tennis fandom and court assignment quandaries

Follow The Athletic’s Australian Open coverage

Welcome to the Australian Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.

On Day 2, one rising star’s fans took over the tournament, Coco Gauff moved forward and a 370-day wait for a win came to an end.

How did one player’s fans take over the tournament?

From soon after the gates opened at Melbourne Park, fans were making for Court 6, a small field court, in their droves. By lunchtime, a line to enter a court with a capacity of less than 1,500 snaked all around the perimeter and much of the grounds, all in search of one player: Alex Eala of the Philippines.

Eala, the 20-year-old world No. 49, is nothing less than a sensation at these big tournaments in big cities, and organizers haven’t quite figured out how to get her on courts that can accommodate her fans. Never more so than in Melbourne, where more than 400,000 residents have Filipino heritage.

The Filipino and south east Asian faithful who didn’t get in turned the bar overlooking the court and the neighboring food court into their own fan zone. The noise from inside the stands was deafening, especially in the first set, as Eala raced to a 6-0 lead against Alycia Parks of the U.S.. They cheered for everything, including — and especially — Parks’ mistakes. When the American missed two overheads in succession to be broken in the opening game, it was like Eala had won the match.

But Parks, whose powerful serve and first ball always had the chance to overtake Eala’s comparatively softer delivery, stood up to the noise and stayed clear-eyed. She won 0-6, 6-3, 6-2, quietening the crowd for the day — but, Eala said in her news conference, not for any longer.

“That’s one of the things that makes a loss like today a little bit harder is I know a lot of people were rooting for me,” she said. “I just hope that the support continues with the losses along with the wins. I think that would really touch me.”

Prue Ryan, a spokesperson for Tennis Australia, said organizers take multiple factors into consideration when scheduling. “After weighing all factors, including the significant popularity of a range of players, Court 6 was the best option in terms of capacity and accessibility,” she said in a statement.

That accessibility included standing room on a new high-line structure.

Parks said that the cheering for missed serves and mistakes threw her a bit, and she found herself focusing on the crowd instead of her game. Then she stopped, and that made all the difference

“I was expecting it, but I wasn’t. She definitely has a good crowd,” she said in her news conference. “I just kept telling myself to stay in the zone.”

For Eala, who said that some parts of her first Australian Open have been “overwhelming,” the art of being herself from point to point and being an avatar for her archipelago is still a balancing act. The crowds that roar her to victory can also bring pressures of their own.

The Eala phenomenon, and the similar raucousness that has greeted João Fonseca as he begins his career, puts a different kind of pressure on organizers. When a player’s popularity far outstrips the ranking, how do they balance fan experience and accessibility to the players people want to see, with the established order of the sport?

— Matt Futterman

How did a long, long wait come to an end?

With a return winner cracked from almost in the stands, No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev moved past Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-2, 7-6(2). He also ended a 370-day wait for something that former Grand Slam champions and players on the cusp of the top 10 do not tend to have to wait for: A first-round win at a Grand Slam.

At last year’s Australian Open, Medvedev, who was then defending finalist points, survived five sets against world No. 418 Kasidit Samrej of Thailand in the opening round. He then lost to Learner Tien, before Tien was a top-30 player. He didn’t win another match at a major, losing twice to Benjamin Bonzi (at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, the latter in ignominy) and at the French Open to Cameron Norrie.

That string of losses contributed to 2025 feeling more like an annus horribilis for Medvedev than it truly was. His record at other ATP Tour events was reasonable, despite issues with his physicality and a feeling of backsliding in his game. It was the major drought that really scuppered his year.

“What happened last year happened, and it’s OK. It’s part of career, part of life. I managed to finish the year like 12 or 13, which is, to be honest, it’s great for many players,” Medvedev said in his news conference after beating De Jong.

— James Hansen

How did Coco Gauff get her tournament rolling?

Coco Gauff got her Australian Open campaign going in reasonably clinical style Monday.

Gauff, the No. 3 seed, found her way to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Russian-born Kamilla Rakhimova, who now represents Uzbekistan. Rakhimova couldn’t put up much resistance, especially on her own serve. Gauff earned 14 break points and took six of them, with Rakhimova winning just three service games.

When Gauff is breaking her opponent’s serve at that rate, it takes some pressure off her own serve, which is the big weakness in her arsenal.

She double-faulted seven times on Monday, but there were six in the first set and three in the first game. That’s far more than she wants, and it was part of the reason the first set lasted nearly an hour, which is strange for a set with such a lopsided score. It also shows that she was able to get them under control.

Slightly more worrisome was the velocity of her first serve, which she sometimes spun into the box at less than 80 mph. That won’t likely cut it as the competition gets stiffer, though her speed picked up as the match wore on and she focused on accelerating her arm through the stroke.

“I think both of us were struggling on the far side,” Gauff said after the match. “The sun is right there, which I know for every time I play first.”

She took a glass-half-full view of the effort. Her backhand and movement were as good as her serve, and sometimes her forehand, was shaky.

Next up is Serbian Olga Danilović, a big-hitting left-hander who outlasted Venus Williams Sunday night.

“If I stay with my game, hopefully I can come out with the result,” Gauff said.

Her compatriots at the top of the rankings joined her in charting a steady course into the second round. Amanda Anisimova recovered from a scratchy first set to beat Simona Waltert 6-3, 6-2, while Jessica Pegula cruised past Anastasia Zakharova 6-2, 6-1.

— Matt Futterman

And what do three-set matches tell us about an American in a tough spot?

When a tennis player experiences an apparent decline in results, it can be hard to understand what is happening. Is it other players improving? Is it their game getting worse? A combination of the two? With what weighting?

Sometimes, it’s just the law of averages.

For the first couple years of her career, Emma Navarro developed a reputation as a master of three-set wins.

Navarro is a gym rat and as fit as any player on the tour. In 2024, she played 31 three-set matches and won 21 of them. She made the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Her ranking rose to No. 8. She even scrawled “Me ❤️ 3 sets” on a camera lens after one marathon win.

Navarro lost in the opening round Monday, falling to Magda Linette of Poland in three sets. She was the 15th seed, after a 2025 season that fell short of the one before it.

She doesn’t look to be all that different a player. She can still control a point from the back of the court, before bringing a player in or lacing the ball past them when they don’t expect it. But her three-set record is getting meaner — or perhaps just closer to the mean.

She played 24 three-set matches in 2025 and went 12-12 in them. So far in 2026 she has played two and lost them both. Against most players on the WTA Tour, a third set is going to be basically a coin flip. Everyone knows how those go after a while.

— Matt Futterman

Other notable results on Day 2 📈📉:

Félix Auger-Aliassime (7) had to retire with cramp down 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Nuno Borges, stalling his momentum from a sterling second half of 2025.

Storm Hunter, the Australian qualifier who has come back from a ruptured Achilles and thought she might never compete in singles again, stunned Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-4 to the delight of home fans.

The first big upset is Jiří Lehečka (17), who fell to French qualifier Arthur Géa 7-5, 7-6(1), 7-5.

Iga Świątek (2) had no such trouble, despite a spirited, front-foot performance from another qualifier. She took out Yuan Yue 7-6(5), 6-3.

Home hope Alex de Minaur (6) had a comfortable start, going past Mackenzie McDonald of the U.S. 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.

Mirra Andreeva (8) backed up her title at the Adelaide International Saturday with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 comeback win over 2024 Paris Olympics silver medalist Donna Vekić.

And 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic (4) cruised past Pedro Martinez 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

Shot of the day

Matteo Arnaldi took a bit of a hammering from Andrey Rublev, but there’s always room to find another angle on proceedings — especially if it is as sharp as the one on this backhand.

Drop Shots

📺 Maria Sakkari hit the shot of the year so far Sunday, but the WTA Tour could not show it. Tennis’ relationship with media continues to hurt its growth.

🇦🇺 Daria Kasatkina is playing her first Grand Slam as an Australian citizen since defecting from Russia. She said she “can finally breathe.”

⭐ Roger Federer is back at the Australian Open, and tennis continues to hang on his every word.

Up next: First round continues

🎾 Women’s singles: Leylah Fernandez (22) vs. Janice Tjen

7 p.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+, ESPN2

A captivating clash of gamestyles to open the day, as Fernandez’s flat power and subtle changes of spin come up against Tjen’s more defined heavy forehand and slicing backhand. The Canadian No. 22 seed will start as favorite, but Tjen will have huge crowd support behind her from the Indonesian diaspora in Melbourne.

🎾 Men’s singles: Lorenzo Musetti (5) vs. Raphaël Collignon

7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+

Musetti has remodeled his team in the off-season as he tries to narrow the gap on Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. He will need all his multifaceted talent against Collignon, the rising Belgian who never knows when he is beaten.

🎾 Women’s singles: Tereza Valentová vs. Maya Joint (30)

7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+

Two of the brightest teenage talents on the WTA Tour go head-to-head. Valentová is from the Czech school of power blended with finesse, but has an ability to control the rhythm of points beyond her years. Joint has disguise on her groundstrokes that lets her change direction and move opponents from side, as well as a skidding slice that disrupts their momentum. It should be a cracker.

🎾 Men’s singles: Ben Shelton (8) vs. Ugo Humbert

Not before 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+

All eyes are on Shelton’s left shoulder. The young American talent has the game to challenge the very best and has been to the semifinals at the Australian Open, but his injury at last year’s U.S. Open and a difficult return to the court has been cause for concern. In Humbert, a fellow left-hander with a ton of flat power, he faces a tough first assignment.

🎾 Men’s singles: Rafael Jodar (Q) vs. Rei Sakamoto (Q)

9:30 p.m. ET (estimated) on ESPN Unlimited, ESPN+

Two qualifiers will contest one of the most captivating first-round encounters of the entire tournament. Jodar and Sakamoto have both had storming success on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2025, and are on the cusp of not just breaking into the ATP Tour’s ranks, but becoming real factors very quickly.

Australian Open men’s draw 2026

Australian Open women’s draw 2026

Tell us what you noticed on the second day…

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Sports Business, Culture, Tennis, Women’s Tennis

2026 The Athletic Media Company