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Davidovich Fokina downs Vacherot as title bid gathers pace in Adelaide

  • Posted: Jan 15, 2026

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina continued his push for a maiden ATP Tour title on Thursday evening at the Adelaide International, where he powered into the semi-finals.

The 26-year-old Spaniard carved a series of stunning angles and winners to defeat reigning Shanghai champion Valentin Vacherot 7-6(4), 6-2. Davidovich Fokina, who has reached five ATP Tour finals — including two in which he held championship points in 2025 — is rising to the occasion in Adelaide, where he is competing as the top seed for the first time in his career.

“I knew his serve was amazing,” Davidovich Fokina said of Vacherot, who hit 15 aces according to Infosys ATP Stats. “I tried my best to return his serve… It was like playing against [John] Isner. The key was to be focused and I [have] improved my level every game.”

Into his 12th semi-final, Davidovich Fokina will face fourth seed Ugo Humbert, who fired 32 winners en route to dispatching qualifier Alexander Shevchenko 6-0, 6-3 in just 57 minutes.

Earlier, second seed Tommy Paul continued his impressive form in Adelaide by defeating Aussie Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 6-2 to reach his third semi-final at the ATP 250 event. Paul, the former No. 8 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, missed the final three months of the 2025 season due to a lingering foot injury and returned last week in Brisbane, where he fell to big-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round.

“I’m just happy to be back out here. It was a long end of the year for me, and to be back in Australia playing great tennis, I’m really happy,” said Paul, who also reached the Australian Open semi-finals in 2023. “All the tournaments in Australia, they do a good job of keeping most of the courts the same speed, and they seem to match up with my game.”

Paul will next face Tomas Machac, who beat Jaume Munar 6-4, 6-4 to advance to his first semi-final since winning his only ATP Tour title in Acapulco last February. The eighth-seeded Czech takes a 2-1 Lexus ATP Head2Head lead into his clash with Paul, who won their most recent meeting in Rome last year.

Machac arrived in Adelaide having not won a tour-level match since his Shanghai opener in October, but he is yet to drop a set across three dominant victories this week.

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Federer talks Alcaraz-Sinner & ‘one of the most important points in my career’ on AO return

  • Posted: Jan 15, 2026

Even in a career as packed with highlights as Roger Federer’s, some moments still stand out.

The Swiss icon was a six-time champion at the Australian Open, where on Thursday he spoke to media ahead of his appearance at the opening ceremony of the 2026 edition of the hard-court major. Yet for a number of reasons, Federer identifies his fifth title in Melbourne as the one that stands out the most.

“I guess it has to be 2017 just because of the way it ended in the finals against Rafa.” recalled Federer, who was aged 35 and had not played a tour-level match for six months when he arrived at that year’s Australian Open. “It was surreal. I came here with no expectations… I was maybe going to be happy with the quarters. I think Seve [Luthi], my coach secretly, Ivan [Ljubicic], believing I could do it. I was like more, ‘Yeah, no, not at 17 in the world, not having played in six months, all that’.

“I played really well at the Hopman Cup. Came here feeling good. Still I knew I had a tough draw, had to go through some big guys to get anywhere close to winning. I think just the way the finals played out kind of makes it maybe one of the best special ones I’ve ever had in my career.”

Federer overcame his great rival Rafael Nadal in a five-set championship-match thriller to cap his 2017 run at Melbourne Park. The match included a 26-shot rally, with Nadal serving at 3-4, deuce in the fifth set, which Federer claimed with a stunning forehand down the line. It was a shot that has lived long in the memory of tennis fans.

“I’ve seen it many, many times,” said Federer, who also won the Melbourne crown in 2004, 2006-07, 2010 and 2018. “All my friends send it to me. It’s on the algorithm of people I know. It [keeps] on coming through. It’s a nice point, maybe one of the most important ones I’ve had in my playing career. What a match, what a celebration, what a moment.”

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A new Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry that has etched itself into the tennis landscape in a similar manner to Federer vs. Nadal is the one between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. The pair has won the past eight major singles titles between them and contested the final three Grand Slam title clashes of 2025, including a remarkable five-set battle at Roland Garros during which Alcaraz saved three championship points in the third set before triumphing.

“The rivalry with Alcaraz and Sinner is a great one,” said Federer. “They play incredible tennis. I think that French Open final was unreal. I think the game, not that it needed it, but it was great that we had it. I feel like for a second, for a moment, the world stood still in the sporting world and watched towards Paris, what was going on in that epic fifth set because it could have ended much, much sooner obviously for Jannik.

“Then all of a sudden it ended up in this most crazy fashion. Maybe one of the greatest games we’ve ever had in our sport. It’s good we still live off that momentum. Then they backed it up by playing against each other in all those other finals. Everybody is trying to keep up and they’re trying to pull away. What we’ve seen in terms of their progression in the last years, it’s been wonderful. I practised with those guys a little bit. They’re incredible ball strikers. There’s obviously more to come.”

The No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Sinner arrives at the Australian Open this year as the two-time defending champion. Meanwhile World No. 1 Alcaraz has the chance to become the youngest man to complete the Career Grand Slam (winning all four major titles) if he can lift his maiden trophy at Melbourne Park.

“[Carlos] knows about it. It’s like Rory [McIlroy] going for the Masters. Those things are tough,” said Federer, when asked about Alcaraz’s prospects. “At the end of the day, the momentum shifts after the first round. Then it’s point-for-point mentality. It’s true, in order to complete the career Grand Slam already now would be crazy.

“So let’s see if he is able to do ‘crazy’ this week. I hope he does because for the game, again, that would be an unbelievable, special moment. He has another hundred and whatever players that say, ‘We don’t agree with those plans’. They might try to stop him.”

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Kokkinakis withdraws from Australian Open singles

  • Posted: Jan 15, 2026

Thanasi Kokkinakis announced his withdrawal from the Australian Open singles event on Thursday.

“Unfortunately after speaking with my team and doctors I have made the decision to pull out of the @AustralianOpen singles,” Kokkinakis wrote on Instagram Stories. “After an incredibly tough year this was the event I was looking forward to the most but I’m not ready yet. I’m doing everything I can every day to be back to 100%.”

Kokkinakis played his first singles match in nearly a year last week at the Adelaide International, where he defeated Sebastian Korda in a final-set tie-break.

But throughout the match, the Australian struggled with his right shoulder on the back of pectoral surgery last February. He withdrew from Adelaide on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old hopes to compete in doubles at Melbourne Park. He won the title with Nick Kyrgios in 2022.

“We will still try and step out for the doubles and have some fun,” Kokkinakis wrote. “Thank you to everyone who supports me.”

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2027 ATP Tour calendar unveiled

  • Posted: Jan 14, 2026

The ATP has announced the 2027 calendar, featuring 59 tournaments across 29 countries, in addition to the four Grand Slam tournaments.

The 2027 season will reinforce the ATP Tour’s established global footprint, providing continuity after a landmark year that attracted 5.55 million fans on site and a projected broadcast and streaming audience surpassing one billion.

The 2027 ATP Tour calendar will feature:

  • Four Grand Slams
  • Nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, with seven in the enhanced 12-day format
  • 16 ATP 500 events
  • 29 ATP 250 events
  • Team competitions: the United Cup, Laver Cup and Davis Cup
  • The Nitto ATP Finals, held in Italy for a seventh edition
  • The Next Gen ATP Finals, featuring the world’s top eight players aged 20-and-under, with host city to be confirmed in 2026

The 2027 season will see the ATP continue to implement key reforms through OneVision, designed to strengthen the Tour’s premium events, align the interests of players and tournaments, and enhance the fan experience. Central to this evolution are progressive tournament profit-sharing agreements, which have played a key role in delivering record levels of player compensation across the sport.

Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman, said: “The ATP Tour delivers world-class competition in some of the most iconic destinations across the world, and 2027 is set to keep raising the bar. The record 5.55 million fans attending our events speaks volumes about the strength and global appeal of tennis today. Our focus is on unlocking greater value by elevating our top-tier events and delivering the very best of our sport to the fans.”

View the full 2027 ATP Tour calendar here.

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