Day 12 at the Australian Open: Sabalenka and Rybakina meet in the women's singles final, Zhang Shuai contends for the title again after 7 years

On January 29, 2026, Beijing time, the twelfth day of the Australian Open featured the women's singles, women's doubles, and men's doubles semifinals played one after another.

Mertens and Zhang Shuai advance to the women's doubles final

At Margaret Court Arena, the pair Zhang Shuai and Mertens defeated Ena Shibahara and Veronika Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2. This marks their second time teaming up to reach a women's doubles final since Wimbledon 2022, and it is Zhang Shuai’s fifth Grand Slam doubles final, having previously won two titles and finished runner-up twice. The final will take place on January 31, where the duo "ShuaiMert" will face Danilina and Krunić.

Sabalenka

The first women's singles semifinal featured a match between Sabalenka and Svitolina. Early in the match, the umpire ruled that Sabalenka’s vocalizations during her shot distracted her opponent, awarding the point directly to Svitolina. This incident seemed to ignite Sabalenka’s fighting spirit, and she quickly took the first set 6-2.

Svitolina

In the second set, although Svitolina managed an early break, she struggled to counter Sabalenka’s powerful baseline shots. Sabalenka won five consecutive games to lead 5-2. In a crucial service game to avoid losing the set, Svitolina’s first serve faltered with a double fault, but she narrowly held serve. However, the world number one did not give her any more chances and closed out the match 6-3, advancing to the Australian Open women's singles final for the fourth consecutive year.

Rybakina

Rybakina then took the court against Pegula. Their head-to-head was tied at three wins each, with Rybakina winning their most recent encounter at last year’s WTA Finals. The drama of the match was concentrated in the final half hour. Rybakina took the first set 6-3 and led 5-4 in the second set with a break advantage. Nevertheless, Pegula showed incredible resilience and mental toughness, saving three match points and breaking back twice to force a tiebreak. Ultimately, Rybakina prevailed 9-7 in the tiebreak, reaching the Australian Open women's singles final again after three years.

Pegula

In the junior competition, Sun Xinran and Shao Yushan each defeated their opponents to jointly advance to the Australian Open junior girls’ singles quarterfinals. Notably, the last player to reach the junior girls’ singles quarterfinals who also had a strong performance in the main draw this year was Bai Zhuoxuan. Wang Xinyu also reached the junior girls’ singles semifinals at the Australian Open in 2018.

Day 12 results of the 2026 Australian Open

Updated 2026 Australian Open men’s and women’s singles draws