Ten Australian women have learned their road to claiming the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup ahead of Australian Open 2026.
No.30 seed Maya Joint leads the charge, scheduled to battle Czech teenager Tereza Valentova. The 19-year-old is Australia's first seeded women's singles player since Ash Barty in 2022, who went on to win the women's singles title that year.
Joint faces a difficult road to replicate Barty's feat, however, with a potential third-round showdown against Elena Rybakina looming.
Should Joint become the first Australian to defeat Rybakina since Barty at the Adelaide International final in 2022, she could be pitted against Belinda Bencic in the fourth round and Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals.
Australian wildcard Emerson Jones will also oppose a teenager in her opening round match, with the Queenslander up against Canadian No.1 Victoria Mboko.
Jones and Mboko find themselves in the same segment of the draw at top seed and two-time AO champion Aryna Sabalenka, who looms as a round-four opponent.
Australian Open 2026 Women's singles, first round | ||||
| Player | Rank | Player | Rank | |
| [30] Maya Joint (AUS) | 32 | v | Tereza Valentova (CZE) | 60 |
| Daria Kasatkina (AUS) | 48 | v | Qualifier | |
| Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) | 76 | v | Qualifier | |
| Kimberly Birrell (AUS) | 107 | v | Qualifier | |
| [WC] Talia Gibson (AUS) | 119 | v | Anna Blinkova | 62 |
| [WC] Priscilla Hon (AUS) | 121 | v | Qualifier | |
| [WC] Emerson Jones (AUS) | 155 | v | [17] Victoria Mboko (CAN) | 17 |
| [WC] Taylah Preston (AUS) | 204 | v | Zhang Shuai (CHN) | 73 |
In other first-round matches, Talia Gibson meets world No.62 Anna Blinkova for the first time. Meanwhile, Taylah Preston seeks to avenge her Brisbane International qualifying loss from last week against world No.73 Shuai Zhang.
Daria Kasatkina, Ajla Tomljanovic, Kimberly Birrell, and Priscilla Hon have been presented with more favourable first-round draws and will have to wait until the end of qualifying today to learn their opening-round opponents.