2026 Australian Open: Young American Jovic stuns Paolini to reach her first Grand Slam women's singles round of 16

On January 23rd Beijing time, the 2026 Australian Open featured the third round battles in men's and women's singles. The 29th-seeded American teenager Jovic defeated the 7th seed Paolini 6-2, 7-6(3) in 1 hour and 46 minutes, producing the tournament’s biggest surprise in the women's event and advancing to her maiden Grand Slam second week.

Jovic

Born on December 6, 2007, Jovic is currently the youngest player ranked in the WTA Top 100. In 2025, she claimed her first career title at the WTA 500 Guadalajara event after a series of strong performances. At this Australian Open, seeded 29th, Jovic defeated Worenets and Han Tianyu in the first two rounds, and against the top-10 player Paolini—who had beaten her twice before—she demonstrated remarkable determination.

In the first set, Jovic broke Paolini’s serve in each of the Italian’s first three service games, taking a commanding lead and closing the set 6-2. In the second set, Jovic again broke the Italian’s serve early. Although she lost two match-point service games, she ultimately secured victory by winning the tiebreak 7-3.

“This feels amazing, I’ve been looking forward to this moment and working hard for it,” she said about missing two match-point service games in the second set. “I just wanted to focus on what I was doing, stay aggressive and control the match like I did early on. I was too passive on those match-point serves, so I told myself to just go for it, and that really helped in the tiebreak.”

Using the brand-new generation VCORE 100 racquet, this marks Jovic’s first career victory over a top-10 opponent. In the fourth round, she will face Kazakhstan’s Putintseva for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Paolo

American star and 19th seed in men’s singles Paolo performed impressively in the third round. After 59 minutes, he won the first two sets 6-1, 6-1, leading to his opponent Davidovich Fokina retiring, which secured Paolo’s place in the last 16. The Australian Open has been a strong tournament for Paolo; he reached the semifinals in 2023 and the quarterfinals last year. In the fourth round, Paolo will challenge world No.1 Alcaraz using the latest generation VCORE 98 racquet.

(Written and edited by: Dato; Photos: Visual China)