{"id":1838,"date":"2026-01-26T21:39:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/?p=1838"},"modified":"2026-01-26T21:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:39:38","slug":"australian-open-round-2-3-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/2026\/01\/26\/australian-open-round-2-3-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open &#8211; Round 2 &amp; 3 &amp; 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83c\udfbe Key Highlights (Jan 22\u201326, 2026)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Men\u2019s Singles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ben Shelton stunned Casper Ruud<\/strong> in the fourth round (3\u20136, 6\u20134, 6\u20133, 6\u20134), showcasing his explosive serve and fearless shot-making.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jannik Sinner continued his rise<\/strong>, defeating Luciano Darderi in straight sets (6\u20131, 6\u20133, 7\u20136), proving why he\u2019s seen as the future of men\u2019s tennis.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Novak Djokovic advanced by walkover<\/strong> after Jakub Mensik withdrew due to injury, keeping his quest for another Melbourne crown alive.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lorenzo Musetti outclassed Taylor Fritz<\/strong> (6\u20132, 7\u20135, 6\u20134), displaying his trademark flair and tactical variety.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Alex de Minaur thrilled the home crowd<\/strong>, dismantling Alexander Bublik (6\u20134, 6\u20131, 6\u20131) in a commanding performance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Learner Tien shocked Daniil Medvedev<\/strong>, winning in straight sets (6\u20134, 6\u20130, 6\u20133) and cementing himself as one of the breakout stars of the tournament.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Women\u2019s Singles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Iga \u015awi\u0105tek dominated Maddison Inglis<\/strong> (6\u20130, 6\u20133), showing her relentless baseline power and composure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jessica Pegula defeated Madison Keys<\/strong> (6\u20133, 6\u20134), a battle of Americans where Pegula\u2019s consistency proved decisive.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Amanda Anisimova overcame Wang Xinyu<\/strong> (7\u20136, 6\u20134), marking her return to form on the big stage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Elena Rybakina cruised past Elise Mertens<\/strong> (6\u20131, 6\u20133), her serve and aggressive play leaving little room for resistance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83c\udf1f Storylines to Watch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Djokovic\u2019s march toward history<\/strong>: With a walkover win, he remains fresh and dangerous as the tournament heads into the quarterfinals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Young guns rising<\/strong>: Learner Tien\u2019s upset of Medvedev and Shelton\u2019s victory over Ruud highlight a generational shift in men\u2019s tennis.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Women\u2019s powerhouses<\/strong>: \u015awi\u0105tek and Rybakina look unstoppable, while Pegula and Anisimova add depth to the competition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udcca Quick Results Table (Jan 22\u201326)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Date<\/th><th>Match<\/th><th>Result<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Jan 25<\/td><td>Alex de Minaur vs Alexander Bublik<\/td><td>6\u20134, 6\u20131, 6\u20131<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jan 25<\/td><td>Learner Tien vs Daniil Medvedev<\/td><td>6\u20134, 6\u20130, 6\u20133<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jan 26<\/td><td>Ben Shelton vs Casper Ruud<\/td><td>3\u20136, 6\u20134, 6\u20133, 6\u20134<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jan 26<\/td><td>Jannik Sinner vs Luciano Darderi<\/td><td>6\u20131, 6\u20133, 7\u20136<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jan 26<\/td><td>Novak Djokovic vs Jakub Mensik<\/td><td>Walkover<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jan 26<\/td><td>Lorenzo Musetti vs Taylor Fritz<\/td><td>6\u20132, 7\u20135, 6\u20134<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jan 26<\/td><td>Iga \u015awi\u0105tek vs Maddison Inglis<\/td><td>6\u20130, 6\u20133<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jan 26<\/td><td>Jessica Pegula vs Madison Keys<\/td><td>6\u20133, 6\u20134<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jan 26<\/td><td>Amanda Anisimova vs Wang Xinyu<\/td><td>7\u20136, 6\u20134<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jan 26<\/td><td>Elena Rybakina vs Elise Mertens<\/td><td>6\u20131, 6\u20133<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fantasy Leaderboard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Onto the fantasy leaderboard and the leader as we head into the quarter-finals and week 2 is &#8220;Potluck&#8221;. They have a lead of 5 points over 2nd placed &#8216;The Green peppers&#8217; who is owned by a debutant owner. &#8216;Buena Suerta&#8217; somehow moved down just 1 spot after 4 days of play since the last leaderboard was shown. &#8216;Joey&#8217; moves nicely into 4th place and then comes a 5 place tie for 5th spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prize Money:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>R1000<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R750<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R500<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R250<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R100<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Random Prizes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>17th place &#8211; R50<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>30th place &#8211; R50<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>47th Place &#8211; R50 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>58th Place &#8211; R50<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"456\" height=\"733\" src=\"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/Day-8-Top-Half.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1840\" srcset=\"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/Day-8-Top-Half.png 456w, http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/Day-8-Top-Half-187x300.png 187w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 456px) 100vw, 456px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Top Half<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"455\" height=\"654\" src=\"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/Day-8-Bottom-Half.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1841\" srcset=\"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/Day-8-Bottom-Half.png 455w, http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/Day-8-Bottom-Half-209x300.png 209w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 455px) 100vw, 455px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bottom Half<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ud83c\udfbe Key Highlights (Jan 22\u201326, 2026) Men\u2019s Singles Women\u2019s Singles \ud83c\udf1f Storylines to Watch \ud83d\udcca Quick Results Table (Jan 22\u201326) Date Match Result Jan 25 Alex de Minaur vs Alexander Bublik 6\u20134, 6\u20131, 6\u20131 Jan 25 Learner Tien vs Daniil Medvedev 6\u20134, 6\u20130, 6\u20133 Jan 26 Ben Shelton vs Casper Ruud 3\u20136, 6\u20134, 6\u20133, 6\u20134 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1838"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1851,"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions\/1851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eishonline.co.za\/jftl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}