2026 Australian Open – Women's singles
Elena Rybakina defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the final, 6–4, 4–6, 6–4 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2026 Australian Open. It was her second major title. Rybakina was the first Kazakhstani woman to win the Australian Open singles title, and the fourth woman since the establishment of the WTA rankings to defeat both the world No. 1 and No. 2 players en route to the Australian Open title. The final was a rematch of the 2023 final, won by Sabalenka.
Keys was the defending champion, but lost in the fourth round to Jessica Pegula.
Sabalenka was the first woman to reach four consecutive Australian Open women's singles finals since Martina Hingis in 2000. Sabalenka and Rybakina both reached the final without losing a set en route, the first time both finalists at a major did so since Serena and Venus Williams at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships.
Aged 45 years and 7 months old, Venus Williams became the oldest woman to compete in the singles main draw at the Australian Open, surpassing the previous record set by Kimiko Date in 2015. The first round match between Karolína Plíšková and Sloane Stephens was the first major main draw match contested between two players ranked outside the top 1,000 since the current WTA Tour format was established in 1990.
Zeynep Sönmez became the first Turkish woman to record a win at the event and the first Turkish player to advance to the third round. This was the first Australian Open to have four Americans in the quarterfinals since 2001. For the first time in the Open Era, the top six seeds reached the quarterfinals in both the women's and men's singles competitions.
Seeded players
The following are the seeded players, based on WTA rankings as of 12 January 2026. Rankings and points before are as of 19 January 2026.Because the tournament took place one week later this year, points defending also included tournaments that took place during the week of 27 January 2025, which were replaced by the player's next best result.
| Seed | Rank | Player | Points before | Points defending | Points won | Points after | Status |
| 1 | 1 | Aryna Sabalenka† | 10,990 | 1,300 | 1,300 | 10,990 | Final lost to  Other entry informationWildcardsThe following players received wildcards into the women's singles main draw:WithdrawalsThe entry list was released based on the WTA rankings for the week of 8 December 2025, which was the usual cutoff deadline date.† – not included on entry list ‡ – withdrew from entry list § – withdrew from main draw Source: |