The 2024 Australian Open tennis major is already in the quarter-final stages in Melbourne.
Across Tuesday and Wednesday (23-24 January), the last eight in each of the five senior categories will duke it out for a spot in the semi-finals of the first Grand Slam of the year.
While the men’s singles quarter-finals feature eight seeded players, the women’s singles last eight is wide open, with 12th seed Zheng Qinwen of People’s Republic of China the highest-ranked player left in the top half of the draw.
Men’s world No.1 Novak Djokovic, who masterminded a one-sided thrashing of Adrian Mannarino of France in the fourth round 6-0 6-0 6-3, faces a test against 12th seed Taylor Fritz of the United States. Fritz saw off seventh-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in four sets in the last round, but is winless in eight ATP meetings against the Serbian top seed, looking for a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title.
Spain’s Wimbledon champion and second seed Carlos Alcaraz faces Olympic champion Alexander Zverev of Germany in arguably the pick of the last-eight ties. Zverev narrowly holds the upper hand in their seven previous ATP matchups, but was made to work hard in the fourth round by Britain’s Cameron Norrie, who forced the German to a fifth-set tiebreak before Zverev triumphed 10-3.
Fourth and fifth seeds Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev are also pitted against each other, while the fourth quarter-final sees Hubert Hurkacz take on Daniil Medvedev.
Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka is one of just four seeds left standing in the women’s draw, and she also on paper has the toughest draw in the quarter-finals. The second seed faces Czech ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova, who needed three sets to overcome teenage upstart Mirra Andreeva in the fourth round.
US Open champion Coco Gauff, the fourth seed, is also in the same half of the draw, and faces Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk.
The top half of the women’s singles draw is anyone’s guess to predict, with all four women having never reached a Grand Slam final. Zheng will play unseeded Anna Kalinskaya, while Czechia’s Linda Noskova takes on qualifier Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, the first qualifier to reach this stage of a Grand Slam since Emma Raducanu won the 2021 US Open.