If Gabriel Diallo is to keep his round-two streak at majors alive, he is going to have to cause a shocker in the first round of the 2026 Australian Open.
The draw for the year’s first major was unveiled on Thursday, with the Canadian No. 3 landing face-to-face with world No. 3 and 2025 Australian Open runner-up Alexander Zverev in the first round. Seven Canadians will be competing in singles in Melbourne.
Diallo has won at least one match at five consecutive majors. His lone first-round loss came in his Grand Slam debut at the 2024 French Open. In 2025, he was the only Canadian to reach the second round at all four majors.
He will have a tough time continuing the streak in 2026, however. It will be the first meeting between Diallo and Zverev, but the German has won at least one match at the Australian Open every year since 2017. The world No. 3, who reached the final in Melbourne a year ago, only has one first-round loss at a major since 2020, although that was last year at Wimbledon.
If he were to cause the massive upset, Diallo’s road in Melbourne will remain tricky. He would face the winner between former National Bank Open champion Alexei Popyrin and Alexandre Muller in round two. No. 26 seed Cameron Norrie would be his projected third-round opponent.
Three of the four Canadian men in the singles draw are in that second quarter of the draw.
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Liam Draxl will be making his Grand Slam debut at Melbourne Park, having come through qualifying to get into the main draw of a major for the first time in his career. The world No. 145 won back-to-back three-setters in qualifying to punch his ticket, including a comeback win in the final round over American Mackenzie McDonald, who had previously reached the fourth round of the main draw at the Australian Open in 2021.
He will open against world No. 66 Damir Dzumhur. It will be the 24-year-old's second singles match at a tour-level event, having made his debut last summer in Toronto, a three-set loss to Pablo Carreño Busta. If he scores his first win, the Newmarket, ON-native could play No. 18 seed Francisco Cerundolo, with No. 13 Andrey Rublev potentially waiting in the third round.
Draxl and Diallo could meet in round four.
Félix Auger-Aliassime, the highest-seeded Canadian at the Australian Open at No. 7, is also in that quarter of the draw and could meet one of his compatriots in the last eight. However, he will have to overcome a gauntlet of his own in order to reach a second Australian Open quarter-final.
The Montrealer will kick off his campaign against the dangerous Portuguese Nuno Borges. Auger-Aliassime edged him out in a three-set thriller in their lone previous meeting last year in Dubai. Juan Manuel Cerundolo or Jordan Thompson would be his second-round opponent, before a possible meeting with No. 25 seed and 2025 NextGen Finals champion Learner Tien in the third round.
Potentially awaiting in round four is one of the biggest thorns in Auger-Aliassime's side, No. 11 seed Daniil Medvedev. The former world No. 1, a three-time finalist at the Australian Open, leads the head-to-head with the Canadian 7-2, including two victories in Melbourne, the most notable being their epic 2022 quarter-final, where Auger-Aliassime led by two sets to love and had a match point. However, the Canadian has won their two most-recent meetings, with Medvedev’s last victory coming at the 2024 Australian Open.
Auger-Aliassime will be trying to break an unfortunate run of form in Melbourne. Ever since reaching the quarter-finals in 2022, he has lost one round earlier each year at the Australian Open. Last season, he lost in the second round from two sets up to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. It is worth noting that his 2022 run to the final eight was preceded by a semifinal run at the previous year’s US Open. The Montrealer reached the final four again in New York last September and will be hoping history repeats itself.
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Were any of Auger-Aliassime, Diallo, or Draxl to reach the semifinals, their projected opponent would be world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz.
Denis Shapovalov rounds out the Canadian men in Melbourne. He is the only Canadian man in the bottom half of the draw. Seeded 21st, the Richmond Hillian will open his campaign against Yunchaokete Bu and would face a tricky round-two opponent no matter what, either the crafty Daniel Altmaier or former US Open champion Marin Cilic.
No. 12 Casper Ruud is Shapovalov’s projected third-round opponent, with world No. 2 and two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner likely waiting in the fourth round. The Canadian has only made it past the third round in Melbourne once, when he lost in five sets to Rafael Nadal in the 2022 quarter-finals. He was beaten by Lorenzo Musetti in the second round a year ago.
On the women’s side, two of the three Canadians in the draw will be making their main-draw debuts at Melbourne Park.
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National Bank Open champion Victoria Mboko leads the way as the No. 17 seed and will look for her first match win at a hard-court major against local wildcard Emerson Jones. Caty McNally or Himeno Sakatsume would be her second-round opponent, with No. 14 Clara Tauson her first projected seeded opponent in the third round.
If she reaches round four, the 19-year-old could find herself up against the ultimate test: world No. 1 and two-time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka.
Mboko will be arriving in Melbourne Park in good form. She reached the semifinals of her warm-up event in Adelaide, upsetting the defending Australian Open champion Madison Keys in the quarter-finals on Thursday. The Canadian has had some success at Melbourne Park in the past, reaching the junior girls doubles final in 2022.
Like the men’s draw, a few Canadians are clustered in the same section of the women’s table. Marina Stakusic is in the same quarter as Mboko and could, if both Canucks cause a few upsets, meet in the last eight.
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Stakusic will be making just her second Grand Slam main draw appearance and first at the Australian Open. She cruised through qualifying, not dropping a set in three matches. The 21-year-old's previous Grand Slam appearance came at Wimbledon in 2024.
In her Melbourne debut, Stakusic will meet local wildcard Priscilla Hon, with No. 29 seed Iva Jovic potentially waiting in round two. No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini is the Canadian’s likely third-round opponent.
Leylah Annie Fernandez rounds out the Canadian contingent. The Lavalloise finished 2025 inside the Top 30 for the first time since 2021 and her seeding of No. 22 will be her highest at a major since the 2022 US Open.
She is in the bottom half of the draw and will kick off her campaign against Janice Tjen. A dangerous veteran will be waiting in round two, either former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova or 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens, before a potential matchup with the defending champion Keys.
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Many of the top Americans are in Fernandez’s path. After Keys, the Canadian is projected to meet No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula in the fourth round, followed by No. 4 Amanda Anisimova in the quarter-finals. Fernandez has never taken a step back at the Australian Open in her career, matching or improving upon her previous-year's performance every time she has competed in Melbourne. She reached the third round for the first time last year, losing to Coco Gauff.
The doubles, wheelchair, and junior draws have yet to be made. Fernandez, Mboko, and Gabriela Dabrowski will all be competing in women’s doubles. Rob Shaw is entered in the quad wheelchair competition, while Nadia Lagaev will be competing in the junior event.
Main-draw play begins in Melbourne on Sunday, Saturday night in Canada.
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Feature Photo: Martin Sidorjak
