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Welcome to the Australian Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
With the semifinals done, the first major of the year has its four finalists. Aryna Sabalenka and Madison Keys will contest the women’s final, while Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev will contest the men’s.
Here’s what stood out while semifinals played out, with the doubles, junior and wheelchair tournaments in full swing.
A blockbuster last four for women’s doubles
Doubles can be a fairly random competition, except when it isn’t.
In the women’s competition, three of the top four seeds made the semifinals. Kudos to the unseeded Russian pair, Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider, for making the final four. When the dust settled Friday, the first- and third-seeded pairs, Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend and Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko, were in the finals.
All except Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, are doubles specialists, but Ostapenko won the 2024 U.S. Open with Lyudmyla Kichenok. Townsend and Siniakova had decent seasons last year on the singles tour, but they won the Wimbledon title in 2024 as part of a run of wins for Siniakova, who has a knack for being 50 percent of…
