By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, January 13, 2026Photo credit: Antoine Couvercelle/ROLEX
The Happy Slam is about to spring winter joy on American tennis fans.
ESPN will provide coverage of all 15 courts from Melbourne Park starting this weekend.
Melbourne is 16 hours ahead of United States’ East Coast time, which can make for some late nights and very early mornings for fans watching AO action live.
In all, ESPN touts it will present “more than 260 hours of live coverage” from Melbourne Park.
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Exclusive AO coverage begins on Saturday, January 17th, with first round action beginning live at 7 p.m. on the ESPN App and on ESPN2 at 10 p.m. New in 2026, match coverage continues through the early rounds starting in primetime and ending at 7 a.m.
Daily three-hour encore presentations will be available on ESPN2 throughout the tournament. The Mixed Doubles Championship on Thursday, January 29th, at 8 p.m., the Men’s and Women’s Doubles Championship on Friday, January 30th at 8 p.m. as well as the Legend’s Championship at 5:30 a.m. and the Juniors Singles Championship at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Januart 31st, will stream exclusively on the ESPN App.
Comprehensive coverage will culminate with the Women’s and Men’s Championships on January 31st and February 1st, respectively, at 3:30 a.m. on ESPN and ESPN Deportes.
ESPN 2026 Australian Open TV Schedule
