Australian Open 2026: Courts
Sports · Tennis · Australian Open 2026
Courts
The whole tournament happened at Melbourne Park, on the eastern edge of the city — sixteen championship courts inside one set of gates, from Rod Laver Arena, where all five finals were played, out to the numbered courts that carried the first rounds. The plan below draws every court where it actually sat, to scale, from surveyed footprints — and each one opens to exactly which matches were played on it, in the order they were played, with the times they started.
Rod Laver ArenaMen's FFinalWomen's FFinalMen's Doubles FFinalWomen's Doubles FFinalMixed Doubles FFinal14,82058 matches
Centre court since the precinct opened in 1988, when it was plain “National Tennis Centre at Flinders Park” — the first tennis venue anywhere with a retractable roof, an idea the Victorian premier floated as a compromise between an open-air court and a closed arena. It took Rod Laver’s name in January 2000 and seats 14,820 for tennis. A 2018 upgrade cut the roof’s closing time from thirty minutes to five. In 2026 it staged all five finals and the men’s semi-finals; Alcaraz completed the career Grand Slam on it.
Carlos Alcaraz
Elena Rybakina
Skupski
Mertens / 
ZhangShow 54 earlier matchesHide 54 earlier matches
Mladenovic / 
Alexander Zverev
Jannik Sinner
Elina Svitolina
Zieliński
Dabrowski / 
Stefani
Casper Ruud
Novak Djokovic (4)✓
Jakub Menšík (16)
Botic van de Zandschulp
Paul / 
Elena-Gabriela Ruse
Maddison Inglis✓
Naomi Osaka (16)
Antonia Ružić
Kamilla RakhimovaMargaret Court ArenaMen's Doubles SFSemi-finalWomen's Doubles SFSemi-finalMixed Doubles SFSemi-final7,50050 matches
Show Court 1 when the grounds opened in 1988, and Margaret Court Arena since — rebuilt for the 2015 tournament from 6,000 seats to 7,500 and given the fastest retractable roof of its kind, five minutes open to shut. It is the third of Melbourne Park’s roofed courts, which is what makes this the only Grand Slam venue that can put three matches under cover at once, and it carried the heaviest slate of the fortnight outside Rod Laver Arena.
Zeballos
ArévaloShow 43 earlier matchesHide 43 earlier matches
Valentin Vacherot
Jaime Faria
Maria Sakkari
Kaja Juvan
Mananchaya SawangkaewJohn Cain Arena10,50038 matches
The People’s Court — the second-largest arena here, opened in 2000 and renamed four times before it settled (Vodafone, Hisense, Melbourne, and since December 2020 John Cain, for the premier who kept the Australian Open in Melbourne). It seats 10,500 for tennis, has its own retractable roof and a velodrome track under the seating, and it is the one show court a ground pass gets you into, which is most of why it sounds the way it does when an Australian is playing.
RoutliffeShow 30 earlier matchesHide 30 earlier matches
Clara TausonKia Arena5,00036 matches
The newest court on the grounds and the signature piece of a $271.5 million redevelopment stage: a 5,000-seat bowl sunk into the ground between Rod Laver and John Cain arenas, built over the old Eastern Courts 16–23 and opened for the 2022 tournament. A roof structure shades most of the seats without closing over the court, so it plays outdoors in all weather — the largest court here that a rain delay still stops.
Bhambri / 
Göransson
Heliövaara / Siniaková / 
Townsend (1)✓Kato / 
Stollár (15)Show 27 earlier matchesHide 27 earlier matches
Zeynep Sönmez
Grigor Dimitrov1573 Arena3,00031 matches
Show Court 2 by construction, 1573 Arena by contract — named from the 2019 tournament for Guojiao 1573, a baijiu distilled by Luzhou Laojiao, in the first of the show-court sponsorships. It has stood since the grounds opened in 1988 and seats 3,000, open to the sky. Through the first week it runs a seeded card a tier below the arenas; by the second it belongs to the doubles draws.
Show 23 earlier matchesHide 23 earlier matches
Cristian Garín
Rebecca ŠramkováANZ Arena3,00037 matches
Court 3 by every other name, and new to this one: the court was renamed ANZ Arena days before the 2026 tournament, the last of Melbourne Park’s major show courts to take a sponsor’s name after sixteen years of the bank sponsoring the tournament without it. Opened with the grounds in 1988, 3,000 seats, shaded since 2020, and walk-up on a ground pass. It played more matches in 2026 than any court but the four largest.
Show 32 earlier matchesHide 32 earlier matches
Damir Džumhur
Janice TjenCourt 5—14 matches
Show 6 earlier matchesHide 6 earlier matches
Camila OsorioCourt 6—23 matches
Olmos / Show 17 earlier matchesHide 17 earlier matches
Alexandra EalaCourt 7—23 matches
Show 17 earlier matchesHide 17 earlier matches
Court 8—21 matches
Hsieh / 
Ostapenko (3)✓Danilović / 
Potapova
Hidalgo / Show 13 earlier matchesHide 13 earlier matches
Court 10—0 matches
Court 11—4 matches
Court 12—15 matches
Show 8 earlier matchesHide 8 earlier matches
Court 13—28 matches
Show 21 earlier matchesHide 21 earlier matches
Court 14—17 matches
Behar / Show 9 earlier matchesHide 9 earlier matches
NeelCourt 15—16 matches
Show 8 earlier matchesHide 8 earlier matches
Why do the numbered courts start at 5?
The numbered courts that hosted 2026 main-draw tennis run 5 to 8 and 10 to 15. There is no Court 1, 2, 3 or 4, because the first three numbers were spent on show courts that outgrew them: Margaret Court Arena opened in 1988 as Show Court 1, 1573 Arena is Show Court 2 under a sponsor’s name, and ANZ Arena is Court 3 under one it only took days before this tournament. Melbourne Park has a Court 13, it is not superstitious about it, and it played more main-draw matches than any other numbered court.
Two gaps are real and neither is a mistake in this record. No Court 9 appears anywhere in the order of play — not in the main draw, not in qualifying — and Court 10, which is on the grounds and in the tournament’s own list of courts, drew no main-draw match at all: the four matches it did host that fortnight were junior and wheelchair ties, which this record does not cover. It keeps its row below, with an empty slate, because leaving it out would be the less honest answer. Courts 16 and 17 are the mirror image — busy all four days of qualifying, and never used once the main draw began.
The pale courts around the edge of the plan are practice and public courts, including the National Tennis Centre’s. They host no championship matches and carry no numbers on the public plan, so they stay unlabelled here too.
Start times are the order of play as posted at Melbourne Park, on Australian Eastern Daylight Time — eleven hours ahead of UTC, and far enough east that a tournament day here was the night before at home.
The grounds plan is drawn from OpenStreetMap building footprints (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL).