{"id":21480,"date":"2026-01-26T11:23:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=21480"},"modified":"2026-01-26T11:24:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:24:27","slug":"australian-qualifier-inglis-embraces-ao-opportunity-against-swiatek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2026\/01\/26\/australian-qualifier-inglis-embraces-ao-opportunity-against-swiatek","title":{"rendered":"Australian qualifier Inglis embraces AO opportunity against Swiatek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Qualifier Maddison Inglis has the chance to continue her dream run and go where no Australian woman has at Melbourne Park since retired great Ash Barty in 2022.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Career Grand Slam-chasing Iga Swiatek was planning some last-minute study up of Maddison Inglis to hopefully avoid suffering a Melbourne Park ambush at the hands of the Australian qualifier.<\/p>\n

The second-seeded Swiatek had been expecting to face two-time champion Naomi Osaka for a place in the Australian Open quarterfinals on Monday.<\/p>\n

Instead, Osaka’s withdrawal with an abdominal strain has left an overjoyed Inglis as the reigning Wimbledon champion’s surprise fourth-round opponent.<\/p>\n

After saving a match point in the first round of qualifying, Inglis is the first Australian to reach the women’s last 16 in Melbourne since the great Ash Barty won the trophy in 2022.<\/p>\n

“I’m still in shock,” the 28-year-old West Australian said.<\/p>\n

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Swiatek beat Inglis 6-1 6-3 in their only previous encounter, in Adelaide five years ago.<\/p>\n

Little wonder why the six-time major winner is taking little comfort from that victory way back when.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I remember we played, but I don’t remember how the match looked like. I thought it was more recent, honestly,” Swiatek said.<\/p>\n

“So, for sure, I need to prepare tactically and will watch maybe a little bit as well because it’s not often I play someone I don’t really know that much, that well.<\/p>\n

“She has had a great run. She didn’t play (yesterday) so she’s going to be fresh. I’ve got to go for it.”<\/p>\n

The careers of Swiatek and Inglis are, quite literally, poles apart.<\/p>\n

While Pole Swiatek needs an Australian Open crown to complete a career Grand Slam, Inglis is playing her first main-draw at a major in four years.<\/p>\n

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After starting the tournament as the world No.168, Inglis is up to 113th in the live rankings.<\/p>\n

“That’s massive,” she told\u00a0Nine<\/i>. “It’s not something I was thinking about even a week ago.<\/p>\n

“Someone told me I am close to my career high and I’m not done yet, we’ll see what I can finish this tournament at.<\/p>\n

“To start the year like this, I couldn’t be happier, I’m excited.”<\/p>\n

Then there’s the “life changing” – and minimum – pay day of $480,000 Inglis will receive.<\/p>\n

“It’s honestly unbelievable. It’s like a dream,” Inglis said. “When I saw that first-round qualifying was $40,000, I thought that’s amazing.”<\/p>\n

Should her dreamy run continue with a victory over Swiatek, Inglis would play either fifth-seeded former Open finalist Elena Rybakina or world No.21 Elise Mertens in the quarterfinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Qualifier Maddison Inglis has the chance to continue her dream run and go where no Australian woman has at Melbourne Park since retired great Ash Barty in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6414,"featured_media":21481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6414"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}