More luxurious than a Grand Slam! Only two of Brisbane’s seven stars have fallen behind

The WTA500 Brisbane tournament currently stands as the most prestigious lineup of the 2026 season, boasting seven of the world’s top ten female singles players—Sabalenka, Anisimova, Rybakina, Keys, Pegula, Andreescu, and Alexandrova are all competing. The quarterfinals have been set, making this field even more impressive than that of a Grand Slam!

In the top half, the two quarterfinal matches are Sabalenka vs. Keys and Rybakina vs. Muchova. The Sabalenka-Keys match will be a replay of last year’s Australian Open final. As the defending champion, Sabalenka defeated Kostyuk in straight sets in the third round, improving her Brisbane record to 15 wins and just 1 loss.

In contrast, Keys had a much tougher path, enduring a grueling three-hour battle against Schneider, ultimately winning 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, with all three sets decided by tiebreaks.

Rybakina continued her winning streak from the end of last season by comfortably defeating the 15th seed Badosa in straight sets in the third round, extending her consecutive wins to eight. Her quarterfinal opponent is Muchova, who eliminated the tournament’s 7th seed Alexandrova.

In the bottom half, the quarterfinal matches are Samsonova vs. Pegula and Andreescu vs. Kostyuk. Both top seeds successfully resisted challenges in the third round. Pegula staged two consecutive comebacks in Brisbane this year, overcoming Ostapenko 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in the third round, after beating Kalinskaya 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in the previous round.

Andreescu’s third-round victory was also dramatic; after losing the first set, she rallied to narrowly defeat the 9th seed Noskova, marking her second consecutive comeback win.

Samsonova and Kostyuk each defeated Sasnovich and Anisimova respectively, with Anisimova currently being the highest-ranked seed eliminated from the Brisbane event.

Notably, good news also came from the concurrent WTA250 Auckland tournament, where Chinese player Wang Xinyu led Jones 6-4, 4-3 in the quarterfinals before Jones retired due to injury. This marks Wang’s tenth career appearance in a WTA singles semifinal. She now awaits the winner between Rinette and Iera.

During the match, Wang Xinyu had to wear sunglasses at times due to intense sunlight, but ultimately secured the victory. She earned a valuable 98 ranking points and $12,331 in prize money, boosting her current ranking to 51.(Source: Tennis Home, Author: Barbie)