Coco, Venus could meet at Australian Open; Sinner-Djokovic potential semi
MELBOURNE, Australia — Coco Gauff and Venus Williams could face off in the second round of the Australian Open, another potential chapter in a tennis story that began with a 15-year-old in her Grand Slam debut beating a seven-time major winner at Wimbledon.
Gauff thanked Williams for being such an inspiration to his career after that win at the All England Club in 2019, saying, “I wouldn’t be here without her.”
She followed that up with a first-round victory at the Australian Open in 2020.
She is now the third seed and a two-time major winner. Williams, 45, holds a wild card for the Australian Open, where she is playing for the first time in five years.
The tournament begins on Sunday at Melbourne Park. When the draw was held on Thursday, Gauff was drawn against 91st-ranked Kamilla Rakhimova, and 576th-ranked Williams, who made her debut at the Australian Open in 1998 and reached the final twice, was drawn to face 68th-ranked Olga Danilovic in the first round.
Williams is set to become the oldest woman to appear in the main draw of the Australian Open, surpassing the record previously held by Japan’s Kimiko Date, who was 44 when she lost in the first round at Melbourne Park in 2015.
To have a chance of facing Gauff again, she must do something she hasn’t done in 2026: record a victory. Over the past two weeks, Williams has played tournaments in New Zealand and Hobart, losing in the first round in both cases.
After a 6-4, 6-3 win over Williams on Tuesday, Tatjana Maria said it was a tough win because “everyone loves Venus. I love her too.”
Gauff and Williams are in the same half of the draw as top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, who won back-to-back Australian Open titles before losing last year’s final to Madison Keys.
Sabalenka, who opened her season with a title in Brisbane last week, has a potential third-round meeting against 2021 US Open winner Emma Raducanu.
Defending champion Keys, who lost her quarterfinal match at the Adelaide International on Thursday to rising Canadian star Victoria Mboko in three sets, was drawn into the same quarter as No. 6 Jessica Pegula and No. 4 Amanda Anisimova.
No. 2-ranked Iga Swiatek, seeking a career Grand Slam with her first title at Melbourne Park, is in the bottom quarter on this side of the draw and has a potential fourth-round match against four-time major winner Naomi Osaka.
Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic landed in the same half of the draw, setting up a potential semi-final between the defending champion and the 24-time major winner.
Djokovic, who has won 10 Australian titles but has not advanced beyond the semi-finals at Melbourne Park since 2023, played an exhibition against Frances Tiafoe at Rod Laver Arena hours after the draw. He withdrew last week from a warm-up tournament in Adelaide to give himself more time to prepare for the Open.
Top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz is on the opposite side of Sinner and Djokovic, and has Tiafoe and local hope and sixth seed Alex De Minaur in his quarter of the draw.
