Tenth-seeded Alexander Bublik will begin his 2026 Australian Open campaign with a first-round encounter against America’s Jenson Brooksby. This is the first time a Kazakh player has entered a Major as one of the top 10 seeds. He recently cracked the Top 10 on the ATP Rankings and will be keen to begin his Slam season on a high.
Alexander Bublik vs. Jenson Brooksby Match Details
Date: Jan. 17, 2026 (in ET)
Tournament: Australian Open 2026
Round: First Round (Round of 128)
Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia
Surface: Outdoor Hard
Category:Â Grand Slam
Live Telecast: Tennis Channel, TSN, RDS, Sky Sports
Bublik vs. Brooksby Head-to-Head
The head-to-head between the two players is 1-0 in favor of Brooksby. The only time he played Bublik, the American player won 6-2, 6-3 at the 2022 Canadian Open.
Bublik started the season in the same form as last year, as the Kazakh player won the Hong Kong Open with wins over Botic Van De Zandschulp, Juncheng Shang, and Marcos Giron to reach the final. He faced the top seed, Lorenzo Musetti, in the final, beating the Italian 7-6 (2), 6-3, and started the year off with a bang.
On the other hand, Brooksby began his season at the ASB Classic in Auckland. He won his first-round match 6-4, 6-3 against James Watt, but could not hold on to the momentum as he lost to seventh-seeded Sebastián Báez 5-7, 0-6 in the second round.
Bublik vs. Brooksby Prediction
Including Challenger tennis, Bublik had a 48-24 win-loss record last year. On hard courts, the Kazakh player won 20 of the 37 matches he played. He won the title in Hangzhou and also had a semifinal run at the Paris Masters, along with a decent fourth-round finish at the US Open, where he lost to defending champion Jannik Sinner.
Brooksby, on the other hand, won 27 of the 50 matches he played last year, including Challenger Tour matches. The American did win a clay-court title in Houston, had a grass-court runner-up finish in Eastbourne, but did not fare well on hard courts. He had a negative 11-14 win-loss record on hard courts, with his best result being a semifinal finish in Tokyo.
Bublik has reached ten hard-court finals in his career, winning five titles on the surface, including the one in Hong Kong this year. Meanwhile, Brooksby has reached two hard-court finals in his career, losing both in Dallas and Atlanta back in 2022.
Even though Brooksby has the head-to-head advantage, that match was quite some time ago. Bublik is one of the most in-form players on the Tour, and he just won a title in the week leading up to Melbourne, making him the firm favorite to win the upcoming match.
Pick: Bublik to win in straight sets
