The Australian Open has set up a potential showdown between two American women’s singles stars.

Coco Gauff, 21, and Venus Williams, 45, will face off in a battle between American stars of two different generations—if both manage to win their opening-round match at the Grand Slam. The two are on the same side of the bracket and could meet in the round of 64.

Gauff will face world No. 55 Kamilla Rakhimova from Uzbekistan in the first round. Williams, who received a wild-card entry to the Australian Open, will battle No. 68 Olga Danilović from Serbia. A wild card is an invite granted by the Grand Slam organizers.

A match between the two American greats would be their third official face-off. The first was at Wimbledon in 2019, when Gauff was just 15, and the second was at the 2020 Australian Open. Gauff won both encounters, even though they occurred years before she became a two-time Grand Slam champion.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her,” Gauff said after their match in 2019. “I told her she was so inspiring and I’ve always wanted to tell her that but I’ve never had the guts to before. … I never thought this would happen. I’m literally living my dream right now.”

A battle between the two U.S. draws would likely be a gift for ESPN, which saw double-digit viewership declines for the Australian Open last year despite American Madison Keys taking home the title. Gauff is still considered the biggest women’s tennis viewership draw, as were Venus Williams and her sister, Serena, when they dominated the sport in the 2000s and 2010s. This year’s spike in attendance for the Australian Open also indicates increasing appetite for the tournament.

Gauff and Williams became an impromptu doubles team at the 2021 French Open after Caty McNally, Gauff’s original partner, sustained a late injury. Williams and Gauff lost in the first round.

But a matchup between the two Americans is no guarantee, despite Gauff being heavily favored in her first-round match. Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, has just one official singles win since 2023—a victory over Peyton Stearns at the DC Open in July.

It was her first professional match in more than a year.

Williams, ranked No. 145 in the world, has not won a match since then, including a loss Monday at the Hobart International to 38-year-old Tatjana Maria of Germany. It was the oldest combined age between two women in a WTA main draw since the tour was founded in 1973.

Much like the US Open, another tennis Grand Slam—the Australian Open—is becoming something of a victim of its own mushrooming success.

The initial days of Australian Open qualifying this week have seen unprecedented attendance as crowds have flocked to Melbourne Park, pushing facility capacity to the limit—just like at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. 

Monday’s opening day of qualifying drew a record crowd of 29,261, nearly quadruple the comparable figure of 7,543 from the 2025 tournament. That was followed by crowds of at least 34,000 for each of the subsequent three days—all lapping last year’s figures as well. Through the first four days, the tournament drew a total of 136,248, 17% higher than the entire qualifying week in 2025.

All told, Australian Open organizers expect to draw nearly 300,000 fans for the qualifying week, despite a 2024 move to begin charging adults for opening-week tickets that previously were free.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s the first day of qualifiers. It feels in many ways like it’s the first day of the event,” said Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley after the banner initial day. “But this is the first day of 21 days of activity, entertainment, [and] sport.”

All of this is before the Jan. 18 start of the tournament’s main draw. Last summer, the US Open drew a record attendance of 239,307 for the qualifying week, ultimately setting the pace for a total attendance of 1.14 million that beat the prior record by 9%. 

The same dynamic is playing out in Melbourne. Last year’s total tournament attendance of 1.22 million, including the qualifying week, is all but certain to be surpassed, and perhaps by a lot. Like the U.S. Tennis Association, Australian Open organizers have also put a significant emphasis on attending the qualifying week, touting the cheaper tickets and buttressing the tennis with a variety of other fan activities and a festival-type vibe. 

Feeling the Strain

As great as the top-line numbers for the US Open have been, that tournament last year showed increasing strain as fans struggled to get to the tournament and move freely within the tennis center, and complaints increased about rising prices for tickets and concessions.

Similar reports are now emerging from Australia. Like in New York, outcry has grown about concession prices, while Australian media has also uncovered fan confusion about the difference between tournament qualifying and the main draw. 

Tennis Australia backed its marketing around what it calls Opening Week—similar to the US Open’s moniker of Fan Week for its qualifying—and said it engaged in an “extensive awareness campaign” to boost the qualifying round. 

The Australian Open crowned a new millionaire champion—and he isn’t a professional tennis player.

Australian amateur Jordan Smith won $668,500 ($1 million AUD) on Wednesday after winning the 1 Point Slam, an exhibition event held during the qualifying week at Melbourne Park. The 1 Point Slam features men’s and women’s professional and amateur players competing with the winner of a single rally advancing to the next round. 

Amateurs competed in regional qualifiers last month to qualify for the tournament.

The event debuted last year at the Australian Open, but it had prize money of about $40,000 ($60,000 AUD). Smith’s winnings are more than the singles quarterfinalists of the official Australian Open, which is about $500,000 ($750,000 AUD).

The increased prize money in Year 2 helped lure in a field featuring many of tennis’s best, including Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Świątek, and Coco Gauff. Andrey Rublev was the professional in the top 10 who participated last year.

Smith defeated women’s world No. 117 Joanna Garland in the tournament’s final to win the prize. He upset men’s No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who faulted on a serve, en route to the championship. 

Garland defeated men’s No. 3 Alexander Zverev and Australian men’s professional Nick Kyrgios to reach the final round.

Taylor Fritz, the top-ranked American male, was not in the field, but he expressed regret for not participating.

“Now that I’m actually watching it on TV, massive L from me to not be playing the one point slam, this looks like so much fun,” Fritz said on X/Twitter. Gauff also tweeted after Smith’s win, calling the 1 Point Slam “a great event.”

The success of the 1 Point Slam comes just months after the US Open also attracted the majority of tennis’s top singles stars to a qualifying week event as tournaments try to increase attendance. 

The 2025 US Open mixed doubles featured nearly all top 10 men’s and women’s players (only Gauff did not participate) after the tournament raised the prize money from $200,000 to $1 million. It also offered wild-card entries to lower-ranked popular names like Venus Williams and Emma Raducanu.

The change helped the US Open deliver record attendance for its first week (239,307). The 2026 Australian Open has already reported record highs in attendance through its first few days of qualifying week. 

But the US Open mixed doubles was highly criticized. Unlike the 1 Point Slam, the mixed doubles event is considered an official Grand Slam tournament with many of the past participants being professional doubles players.

Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, the 2024 US Open mixed doubles champions and lone true doubles pairing in the bracket, won the 2025 tournament.

“I think this one is for all the doubles players that couldn’t play this tournament. I think this one is also for them,” Errani said after the win.

It’s unclear whether the French Open and Wimbledon, the other two Grand Slams, will incorporate similar events into their qualifying week.