More than tennis: the innovations redefining this year’s Australian Open

As the Australian Open came to another exciting finish this weekend, the on-court action sizzled both literally and figuratively, with temperatures soaring above 40° Celsius and Elena Rybakina & Carlos Alcaraz (each among the women's and men's top seeds) winning their respective Singles titles.

The Australian public tuned in en masse to the on-court action, with an average TV audience of over 2.1 million for the Women’s Final and 3.4 million for the Men’s Final the following night.

Off the court, the tournament used its advantage as the first Grand Slam of the year to showcase new innovations and ideas.

Opening Serve

The 2026 Australian Open launched with a distinctive curtain raiser: an exhibition match featuring international stars Roger Federer and Andre Agassi, as well as local tennis royalty in Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter.

The Opening Ceremony (the first of its kind for the tournament) was the top broadcast on Saturday, 17 January, with an average audience of 743,000 throughout the two-hour programme and an overall reach of over 2 million across the nation. Other global markets also drove strong viewership of the ceremony, such as the Tennis Channel with an average audience of over 1 million viewers in the US.

Following the Opening Ceremony, there was a Sunday main draw start for the Australian Open. First introduced in 2024, this is the third year of a 15-day competition, following a trend introduced by Roland Garros in 2006. Nevertheless, other Slams have been slow to adopt, with the US Open introducing a weekend main draw start last year, and Wimbledon maintaining a traditional Monday tournament start. The additional main draw day is a TV ratings success, with Channel Nine in Australia driving an average audience of over 1.1 million viewers across the day and night sessions. As a benchmark, the inaugural Sunday start at the 2025 US Open drove a domestic US average audience of 2.4 million across ABC and ESPN 2, while Day 1 of 2025 Roland Garros generated a domestic French average audience of 1.7 million viewers on France Télévisions and Amazon Prime.

Rewriting the matchday broadcast

The Australian Open has executed some of the most well-known innovations in branding and sponsorship activation strategy in recent years. One notable addition to the courts this year are the red lights that appear on out calls during play. From a sponsorship perspective, the red LEDs draw attention to brands on the Net Posts and the Umpire Chair, distinguishing them from the other partners on court. With eyeballs focused on the lights, there is stronger brand recall and association for AO partners Kia and Haier.

Virtual branding is transforming traditional sponsorship strategy, and the Australian Open has used Court Surface overlays to allow brands to rotate during both matches and international feeds. A prime example of this was observed by our teams collaboratively in the Australia and the UK during a Fourth Round match between Ben Shelton and Casper Ruud. On the domestic channel feed, viewers are shown branding by Realestate.au, a property specialist website headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. Simultaneously, viewers watching in the UK on TNT Sports were observing Marriot Bonvoy, the rewards program of a multinational hotel chain.

Of those brands which rotated through the Court Surface, YouGov Sport exposure monitoring found that Pirelli and De Cecco achieved the highest Brand Impact Score, as the logos were clearest for viewers to read and large in size, proving a boost to sponsorship in markets where they were displayed.

A third innovation in the broadcast came via the return of animated feeds, which debuted at last year’s tournament. While available for free during live play in 2025, the Australian Open managed to create a new broadcast product, which was bought by ESPN, Eurosport and Stan this year, with replays still available on YouTube. The animated feeds gained traction online and allow viewers to see a match played out in animation form, encouraging content to be easily shared across social media. The creation of this product showed how quickly the tournament was able to capitalise on the idea, and modernise its brand image to younger viewers.

Game, set, style

While the convergence of sport and fashion continues to grow across the sector, few arenas illustrate the relationship quite like tennis. A sport where style and performance have always gone hand-in-hand, with many of today’s brands being driven by success on the court (e.g. René Lacoste, Fred Perry).

Sport and fashion again intersected at this year’s Australian Open, most notably when Naomi Osaka captured global attention with her avant-garde jellyfish inspired Nike x Robert Wun walk-out look. Just days later, Women’s World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka was announced as Gucci’s latest brand ambassador, reinforcing tennis’ growing role as a stage for luxury expression.

Whilst such collaborations are not new, they point to a changing reality: the court is the runway, and tennis’ visual identity is being actively reshaped by high-end fashion houses.

YouGov Sport Global Fan Profiles show why, with tennis fans 26% more likely than sports fans to be in the high-income bracket (+$150,000) and 41% ‘willing to pay more for luxury brands’, in comparison to 37% of general sports fans, making the sport a natural commercial and cultural fit for premium brands.

As players continue to transcend the traditional ‘athlete’ label, it’s little surprise that elite fashion houses are doubling down on tennis talent. By aligning with players who command global visibility and cultural influence, brands can secure relevance beyond the runway and embed themselves within sport, lifestyle and contemporary culture.

Defined by a clean aesthetic, global reach, and an emphasis on individual narratives, tennis offers luxury brands a distinctive platform to articulate identity, heritage, and aspiration.

While the action on court concluded this weekend, the impact of innovations by the tournament may be felt for years to come. From a product growing in duration and eyeballs, to smarter on-court technology and broadcast production, to fashion collaborations that generate cultural and commercial value, the AO is quietly redefining what a modern Grand Slam looks like. The matches still matter most, but what happens around them could shape the future of the sport.