Welcome to the Australian Open briefing, where will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.

With the semifinals done, the first major of the year has its four finalists. Aryna Sabalenka and Madison Keys will contest the women’s final, while Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev will contest the men’s.

Here’s what stood out while semifinals played out, with the doubles, junior and wheelchair tournaments in full swing.

A blockbuster last four for women’s doubles

Doubles can be a fairly random competition, except when it isn’t.

In the women’s competition, three of the top four seeds made the semifinals. Kudos to the unseeded Russian pair, Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider, for making the final four. When the dust settled Friday, the first- and third-seeded pairs, Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend and Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko, were in the finals.

All except Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, are doubles specialists, but Ostapenko won the 2024 U.S. Open with Lyudmyla Kichenok. Townsend and Siniakova had decent seasons last year on the singles tour, but they won the Wimbledon title in 2024 as part of a run of wins for Siniakova, who has a knack for being 50 percent of the best doubles pairing in the world at any given time. She has won Grand Slams with Barbora Krejcikova, with Townsend and with Coco Gauff. She won the gold medal in mixed doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics with Tomas Machac.

Ostapenko at least has some assistance in the prolific stakes. Hsieh has won Grand Slam titles with six different partners.

Sinner finds his way to another final

At most Grand Slams, the eventual champion has at least one match where they sail close to the wind but eventually find a way to battle through.

For Sinner, that might be his fourth-round win against Holger Rune. Sinner was struggling badly with illness in the heat and was saved in large part by a medical timeout and a 21-minute break to fix a broken net.

Since then, Sinner has had some physical issues, but his level has gone up markedly. He hammered the home favorite and No. 8 seed Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals Wednesday, before taking out the world No. 20 Ben Shelton in straight sets Friday.

If he can stay fit for the final, having suffered with cramps against Shelton, then he will be the major favorite against Zverev. If Sinner can keep up this level and not be too affected by the “tension” he mentioned a few times on court after beating Shelton, then Zverev may struggle to get as close as Rune did. The Dane was level at one set all and had break points to go ahead in the third.

Sinner’s health concerns and cramps could open the door a little for Zverev, a monster athlete who only played 81 minutes of his semifinal against Djokovic before his retirement.

If he can make it an endurance battle, then Zverev stands a chance. Otherwise, Sinner looks set fair for a second straight Melbourne title.

How much should a tennis fan pay attention to junior Grand Slam tournaments?

Two juniors have generated much of the buzz in the boys’ and girls’ tournaments during this Australian Open fortnight.

Emerson Jones of Australia is the top-ranked girl in the world. She went out in the semifinals of her home Slam, losing to Wakana Sonobe of Japan. She received a wildcard into the main draw and got a horrible draw against No. 6 seed Elena Rybakina, who beat her 6-1, 6-1 in the first round. She and her doubles partner, Hannah Klugman of Great Britain, lost in the final to the American identical twin sisters Kristina and Annika Penickova.

Henry Bernet of Switzerland has been catching plenty of eyeballs, too. Bernet, ranked No. 10 in the world, played his way into the junior finals Friday with a win over Oskari Paldanius of Finland. That’s not necessarily the reason Bernet has become a player to watch. On, the athletic shoe and apparel company, this month signed Bernet to a five-year deal. On does not have a big roster of players, but it does pick them well: Swiatek, Shelton, and Joao Fonseca are on its books.

Bernet’s contract and Jones’ wildcard may say more than their results in a junior Grand Slam, which is a competition that includes the best juniors who can afford to travel to Australia rather than the best juniors. Plenty of top teenage players skip the junior Slams, too, because they would rather slug it out on the second rung of the ATP and WTA Tours.

Hewett and Reid look for a double bagel of Grand Slam titles

Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid continued their domination of this event with a sixth successive Australian Open wheelchair doubles title.

The top seeds defeated Spain’s Daniel Caverzaschi and Frenchman Stephane Houdet 6-2, 6-4 at Melbourne Park. They have now won 22 majors and will also be bidding for a sixth straight French Open at the next Grand Slam event. They secured the title at the end of an epic rally on championship point, with all four players chasing down shots and somehow keeping the ball in play. It was an exhibition of why wheelchair tennis, and doubles in particular, is such a thrilling sport to watch.

Hewett still has the chance of completing a double here, with a singles final against the world No. 1 Tokito Oda to come on Saturday. It was Oda who beat Hewett in last year’s final.

Discussing their doubles title, Hewett said: “We just want to win. We’re so hungry for it. We want to keep going, push those numbers as far as we possibly can. To win this one right now, it’s a really special feeling. They’re all up there. Every single Grand Slam title is very meaningful for different reasons. It’s a very proud moment for us right now.”

Shot of the day

Andreeva will, in fact, pass.

Australian Open men’s draw 2025

Australian Open women’s draw 2025

Tell us what you noticed during the four semifinal matches.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Tennis, Women's Tennis

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