Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz won the first Australian Open title of his career, defeating Serbian Novak Djokovic in four sets in the final.
In the semi-final match, the world number one defeated German Alexander Zverev, despite coming close to retiring due to cramps. Djokovic, on the other hand, defeated Yannick Sinner, a two-time Australian Open champion.
This was the 11th head-to-head match for the tennis players, before that Djokovic and Alcaraz had won five each. One of the matches was played at the Australian Open: in 2025 the Serb knocked out the Spaniard in the quarterfinals. At the same time, in the last match between these tennis players, Alcaraz won – in the semifinals of the US Open-2025, where he won the championship.
In the final, Djokovic took the first set, giving up only two games to Alcaraz. However, in the second set, the Spaniard broke early and held on to take a 6-2 lead.
In the third set, Alcaraz took the lead after a break in the fifth game and was able to close the set with a victory only on the fifth try — 6:3. However, in the fourth set, the 12th game became decisive, in which Alcaraz realized a match point.
Australian Open 2026 Final. Men
Carlos Alcaraz (Spain, 1) — Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 4) 3:1 (2:6, 6:2, 6:3, 7:5)
For Alcaraz, this is the first victory in his career at the Australian Open. Before that, the Spaniard had not reached the final of the Australian Open – his best result at this Grand Slam was the quarterfinals in 2024 and 2025.
The 2026 Australian Open title is Alcaraz's seventh Grand Slam final victory. In total, the Spaniard has reached eight finals in his career, seven of which he has won – he has two victories each at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. Thus, Alcaraz completed a career Slam and became the youngest tennis player to do so.