Come kids, gather round. Lean in. And we’ll tell you about an ancient concept. There was a time when a lower-ranked player beat a higher-ranked player, causing surprise. Sometimes a minor fissure in the draw. Sometimes a real tremor. “Upsets,” they were called. Ask your parents.
Here at the 2026 Australian Open, it’s class warfare. As Mark Carney/Thucydides might put it: “The strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.” So few players with seedings alongside their names lost to lesser-ranked players. The favorites were scarcely pushed. At this writing, barring a fluky Félix Auger-Aliassime loss (see below), every remote contender remains in the draw, brushing aside opponents like dandruff flakes.
