Published: January 15, 2026 at 6:26 pm
If there was a theme to the final round of Australian Open qualifying, it was players on the comeback trail from injury. Former US Open champion Sloane Stephens was the most high-profile of those to make it through to the main draw, coming through 6-1, 7-5 against No. 2 seed Lucia Bronzetti, says a WTA Tour report.
Stephens held off a late charge by Bronzetti, who came from 5-2 down in the second set — saving a match point — to level at 5-5, where she held a point to go up 6-5. But Stephens halted the Italian’s run by slamming a backhand winner down the line before serving out the win with a love hold. The result marked just the second time she had successfully come through Grand Slam qualifying, following Roland Garros 2011.
Prior to her three wins this week, Stephens had endured a 13-match losing streak dating back to Wimbledon 2024. She was sidelined for six months of 2025 due to a foot injury and came into Melbourne ranked No. 1,097 (having used a special ranking of No. 115 to enter the qualifying draw). Coincidentally, she has been drawn against another Top 3 player and former Australian Open semifinalist in the first round of the main draw — Karolina Pliskova, who is ranked No. 1,052 but who has a special ranking of No. 40. The match will feature the lowest combined ranking in any Grand Slam main draw (excluding unranked players) since at least 1990.
Pliskova, who missed 12 months of competition due to a foot injury before returning to the WTA 125 circuit last September, withdrew from both Brisbane and Adelaide this month due to a leg injury.
Stephens was joined in the main draw by former No. 25 Anhelina Kalinina, who overhauled Maja Chwalinska 5-7, 6-2, 6-1. The Ukrainian, who was the Rome finalist in 2023, was sidelined for six months last year due to what she described as “health issues — a lot of things.” On her return to action last December, Kalinina promptly won the Limoges WTA 125 title; her performance this week takes her record since her comeback to 8-1.
Kalinina has declared herself “fresh, very motivated” this week, and she’ll have another chance to show it against Auckland finalist Wang Xinyu in the main draw.
Back in April 2024, Australia’s Storm Hunter had risen to a career high of No. 114, and she seemed on the verge of a singles breakthrough to go with her phenomenal doubles’ success. But an Achilles injury took her out of the game for over a year, and her doubles schedule has taken precedence since her return.
Hunter’s talent has gone nowhere, though. As a wild card ranked No. 363, she’s come through the qualifying draw without dropping a set, defeating No. 11 seed Taylor Townsend 7-6(6), 6-2 in a third-round clash of former doubles World No. 1s. She’ll face Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the main draw.
Between August 2024 and October 2025, China’s Bai Zhuoxuan contested just one professional tournament due to an assortment of low back and ankle injuries. The 23-year-old former No. 83’s comeback got off the ground in Jiujiang at the end of last season, where she reached her first WTA quarterfinal via her first Top 50 win, over top seed Ann Li. Bai returned to the Grand Slam stage with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 defeat of Darja Vidmanova..
Elsewhere, No. 5 seed Zeynap Sonmez dismissed Anastasia Gasanova 6-3, 6-2 to complete a dominant run through qualifying. The Turkish player dropped just 13 games in three matches, the fewest of any qualifier. No. 16 seed Nikola Bartunkova, 19, became the only teenage qualifier after needing just 61 minutes to rout Whitney Osuigwe 6-1, 6-0. However, after pulling off impressive comebacks in her two previous rounds, 17-year-old phenom Lilli Tagger’s run was halted 6-3, 6-0 by No. 21 seed Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand. Tararudee joins compatriot Mananchaya Sawangkaew in the main draw, marking the first time in the Open Era that two Thai women have competed in a Grand Slam main draw.
The full list of Australian Open 2026 qualifiers and their main-draw placements:
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs [Q] Bai Zhuoxuan
Caty McNally vs [Q] Himeno Sakatsume
Polina Kudermetova vs. [Q] Guiomar Maristany Zuleta De Reales
[11] Ekaterina Alexandrova vs [Q] Zeynep Sonmez
[WC] Priscilla Hon vs [Q] Marina Stakusic
[Q] Aliaksandra Sasnovich vs [7] Jasmine Paolini
[Q] Storm Hunter vs Jessica Bouzas Maneiro
[Q] Linda Klimovicova vs. Francesca Jones
[Q] Yuliia Starodubtseva vs Ajla Tomljanovic
[SR] Karolina Pliskova vs [Q] Sloane Stephens
Wang Xinyu vs [Q] Anhelina Kalinina
Lulu Sun vs. [Q] Linda Fruhvirtova
[21] Elise Mertens vs [Q] Lanlana Tararudee
Daria Kasatkina vs [Q] Nikola Bartunkova
[Q] Maddison Inglis vs Kimberly Birrell
[Q] Yuan Yue vs [2] Iga Swiatek
