Shang Juncheng battles a top Western player fiercely, FAA sadly retires due to injury, Gauff dominates, is Serena just chasing records?

In just three minutes daily, get all the tennis news worldwide. Hello tennis fans, today is Monday, January 19, 2026. Welcome to the midday news report brought to you by "Tennis Home."

This morning Beijing time, the 2026 Australian Open continued its second day of matches. In men’s singles, Chinese player Shang Juncheng took on former Top 10 Spanish veteran Agut on Court 8. After the match started, Shang quickly found his rhythm and broke serve first, winning the opening set 6-4. In the second set, both players exchanged blows in a tight battle, eventually reaching a tiebreak, where Shang unfortunately lost 2-7, leveling the match at 1-1. At the time of reporting, the match was still ongoing.

Another Chinese player, Bu Yunchaokete, will face the 21st seed, Canadian Denis Shapovalov, in the afternoon session. Best of luck to both Shang and Bu!

Other morning matches: 7th seed and Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime retired due to injury while trailing 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 against Portugal’s Borges, ending his Australian Open journey abruptly. Medvedev, Rublev, Shevchenko, Mejdedovic, Alizé, Tommy Paul, and Opelka all won their matches to advance to the second round.

On the first day of competition, which ended last night Beijing time, top seeds including No.1 Alcaraz, No.3 Zverev, and No.10 Bublik all secured victories and moved on to the next round.

On the women's side: This morning, No.3 seed American Gauff overcame some late-match nerves to defeat Rashimova 6-2, 6-3, starting her campaign with a win. Next, she will face Serbian Danilovic, who yesterday staged a three-set comeback against American legend Serena Williams.

Although she suffered a first-round exit, 45-year-old Serena set a new record by surpassing Japan’s Kimiko Date (44) as the oldest player to compete in the Australian Open main draw. This also marked Serena’s 95th Grand Slam main draw appearance and 22nd Australian Open main draw, both the highest in the Open Era. Some fans joked that Serena’s persistence isn’t about winning but about breaking and setting such records.

In matches concluding near noon, Sterns, Marchenko, Fletcher, Hunter, Bondar, Li Jini, Linette, and Kessler all won their first-round matches. Chinese player Yuan Yue is scheduled to play around 4 PM Beijing time against the No.2 seed and world No.2 Iga Swiatek. Yuan trails 0-1 in their head-to-head record. Best wishes to Yuan Yue!

On the first day of competition yesterday, Sabalenka, Semez, Potapova, Raducanu, McNally, P. Kudermetova, Jakupovic, Baptiste, and Svitolina all opened their campaigns with wins. Ukrainian Kostyuk underwent medical evaluation after losing a match tiebreak in the deciding set, diagnosed with a ligament tear after twisting her ankle in a fall during the match. Wishing her a speedy recovery!

Finally, let’s play a guessing game. The photo below shows a player during a match. Without any hints, can you identify who she is?

In the last guessing game, some fans gave the correct answer. Indeed, the person in the photo is Wang Xinyu wearing Zheng Saisai’s glasses.

(Source: Tennis Home Author: Independent Thinker)