Australian Open Qualifying Fields Include 25 Americans, Australian Juniors and 2025 AO Boys Champion; ITF Junior Year in Review By The Numbers

The entry lists and wild cards for the 2026 Australian Open were announced earlier this week, with a dozen US men and 13 US women receiving direct acceptance.

The US men, in order of ranking:

Mackenzie McDonald
Brandon Holt
Michael Mmoh
Zachary Svajda
Colton Smith
Nishesh Basavareddy
Martin Damm
Tristan Boyer
Michael Zheng
Nicolas Moreno de Alboran
Mitchell Krueger
Murphy Cassone

The qualifying wild cards include reigning boys Australian Open champion Henry Bernet of Switzerland, Pepperdine junior Edward Winter and 17-year-old Cruz Hewitt, currently 70 in the ITF junior rankings and 734 in the ATP rankings.

The full list is here.

The US women, in order of ranking:

Madison Brengle

Taylor Townsend

Sloane Stephens

Varvara Lepchenko

Bernarda Pera

Whitney Osuigwe

Luisa Chirico

Elvina Kalieva

Claire Liu

Carol Lee

Sachia Vickery

Jennifer Brady

Mary Stoiana

Former UCLA star Jennifer Brady, who hasn't played in more than two years, is using a protected ranking to enter the qualifying, as are Madison Brengle, Sloane Stephens and Sachia Vickery. Former Texas A&M All-American Mary Stoiana will be making her slam debut outside the United States after her two W50 titles in November moved her ranking to 227. 233 was the initial cutoff; the full list is here.

Wild cards include Alana Subasic, 18, formerly ITF junior No. 31;

Tahlia Kokkinis 17, currently ITF No. 35; Renee Alame 16, currently ITF No. 44; and in a reciprocal agreement with the French federation, Ksenia Efremova, 16, current ITF No. 9.

Roland Garros girls champion Lilli Tagger of Austria received entry based on her WTA ranking of 159; 2025 Australian Open girls champion Wakana Sonobe is not among the qualifying wild cards.

Qualifying begins Monday January 12 in Melbourne, which will be Sunday January 11 here in the United States. 

There are still three men's and one women's main draw wild cards to be awarded, but the first batch have been announced, with Patrick Kypson and Elli Mandlik getting the USTA's reciprocal wild cards after winning the annual race in the fall.

The ITF has completed its annual assessment of the Junior Circuit, with a record number of tournaments and participants among the highlights of 2025.  Tanishk Konduri is recognized as the male player with the biggest improvement in the rankings, with the 16-year-old improving from 2076 to 56 in 2025.