2012 Australian Open

The 2012 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 16 to 29 January 2012. It was the 100th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. The tournament consisted of events for professional players in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles play. Junior and wheelchair players competed in singles and doubles tournaments.

Novak Djokovic successfully defended his title after he defeated Rafael Nadal in the longest Grand Slam final in history. The 2012 final passed the 2008 Wimbledon final for the record, finishing after 5 hours and 53 minutes of play. Kim Clijsters was the defending champion for the women's singles, but lost to Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals. Azarenka defeated Maria Sharapova for her first Grand Slam title; and over took Caroline Wozniacki as the number one ranked player on the WTA Tour. In the doubles Leander Paes and Radek Štěpánek won the title. Paes completed a career Grand Slam with the title while Štěpánek won his first Slam. On the women's side an all Russian duo of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva took the title. The mixed event was won by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Horia Tecău.

Tournament

The 2012 Australian Open took place in January 2012 at Melbourne Park. The men's singles was staged for the 100th time. There have been 59 different previous winners and the 100th staging of the event was marked by a special coin and the 2012 Champion received a special medallion. The tournament also marked 50 years since Rod Laver won his first Grand Slam. For the first time Hawk-Eye ball tracking system was used on the Margaret Court Arena, while Ken Fletcher was inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame.

Points and prize money

Point distribution

Below is a series of tables for each of the competitions showing the ranking points on offer for each event.

Seniors points

Junior points

Wheelchair points

Prize money

The 2012 Australian Open was the richest Grand Slam tournament in history, with the singles champions pocketing 2.3 million dollars. All prize money is in Australian dollars (AUD); doubles prize money is distributed per pair.

Day-by-day summaries

Events

Seniors

Men's singles

Novak Djokovic was the defending champion and won in the final 5–7, 6–4, 6–2, 6–7(5–7), 7–5 against Rafael Nadal entering the season as reigning world number 1 for the first time of his career. It was the longest match in the history of the Australian Open, and in fact, the longest ever singles final in the Open Era in Grand Slam history; clocked at 5 hours and 53 minutes and ending after midnight with Nadal memorable saying after the match "good morning." It marked the fifth Grand Slam of Djokovic's career and his 3rd Australian Open. It also marked the first time that he had defended a Grand Slam title. After winning the 2012 Australian Open, Djokovic had an opportunity to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slams at the same time, after winning the previous two in 2011. Nadal became the first player to lose in the final of three consecutive Grand Slams in the Open Era.

Championship match result Serbia Novak Djokovic defeated Spain Rafael Nadal, 5–7, 6–4, 6–2, 6–7(5–7), 7–5

Women's singles

Victoria Azarenka won her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first Belarusian player to win a Grand Slam in singles, by defeating Maria Sharapova in the final. She also became the 21st player to be ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association on 30 January 2012 as a result of this win. It was Azarenka's 2nd title of the year and 10th of her career.

Championship match result Belarus Victoria Azarenka defeated Russia Maria Sharapova, 6–3, 6–0

Men's doubles

India Leander Paes / Czech Republic Radek Štěpánek defeated United States Bob Bryan / United States Mike Bryan, 7–6(7–1), 6–2

Women's doubles

Russia Svetlana Kuznetsova / Russia Vera Zvonareva defeated Italy Sara Errani / Italy Roberta Vinci, 5–7, 6–4, 6–3

Mixed doubles

United States Bethanie Mattek-Sands / Romania Horia Tecău defeated Russia Elena Vesnina / India Leander Paes, 6–3, 5–7, [10–3]

Juniors

Boys' singles

Australia Luke Saville defeated Canada Filip Peliwo, 6–3, 5–7, 6–4

Girls' singles

United States Taylor Townsend defeated Russia Yulia Putintseva, 6–1, 3–6, 6–3

Boys' doubles

United Kingdom Liam Broady / United Kingdom Joshua Ward-Hibbert defeated Czech Republic Adam Pavlásek / Croatia Filip Veger, 6–3, 6–2

Girls' doubles

United States Gabrielle Andrews / United States Taylor Townsend defeated Russia Irina Khromacheva / Montenegro Danka Kovinić, 5–7, 7–5, [10–6]

Other events

Wheelchair men's singles

Netherlands Maikel Scheffers defeated France Nicolas Peifer, 3–6, 7–6(7–2), 6–0

Wheelchair women's singles

Netherlands Esther Vergeer defeated Netherlands Aniek van Koot, 6–0, 6–0

Wheelchair quad singles

United Kingdom Peter Norfolk defeated United States David Wagner, 4–6, 6–4, 6–2

Wheelchair men's doubles

Netherlands Ronald Vink / Netherlands Robin Ammerlaan defeated France Stéphane Houdet / France Nicolas Peifer, 6–2, 4–6, 6–1

Wheelchair women's doubles

Netherlands Esther Vergeer / Netherlands Sharon Walraven defeated Netherlands Aniek van Koot / Netherlands Marjolein Buis, 4–6, 6–2, 6–4

Wheelchair quad doubles

United Kingdom Andrew Lapthorne / United Kingdom Peter Norfolk defeated United States David Wagner / Israel Noam Gershony, 6–4, 6–2

Broadcast

The host broadcaster of the event was the Seven Network which ran all day and night coverage on its primary channel and its digital channel 7Two from 11 am until the close of play around midnight Melbourne time. 2012 is the first year Seven has aired live primetime play across the entire country, switching coverage to 7Two for various live news and Today Tonight broadcasts in different time zones of Australia. Associated media partnership Yahoo!7 (co-owned by Seven and Yahoo!) saw more than 100 000 viewers check into live match coverage via the Fango mobile app, with check-ins peaking during the Hewitt vs. Djokovic match in the Open's fourth round.

The event was also shown in Australia on Fox Sports which broadcast secondary matches live.

Singles players

Men's singles

Women's singles

Singles seeds

Seeds and Rankings are as of 9 January 2012 and Points are as of 16 January 2012.

Men's singles

Withdrawn players (men's singles)

Women's singles

Withdrawn players (women's singles)

Main draw wildcard entries

Mixed doubles

• Australia Ashleigh Barty / Australia Benjamin Mitchell
• Japan Kimiko Date-Krumm / Japan Kei Nishikori
• Australia Casey Dellacqua / Australia Matthew Ebden
• Australia Jelena Dokić / Australia Paul Hanley
• Australia Jarmila Gajdošová / Brazil Bruno Soares
• Serbia Jelena Janković / Australia Bernard Tomic
• Australia Olivia Rogowska / Australia Marinko Matosevic

Protected ranking

Qualifying entries

Withdrawals

The following players were accepted directly into the main tournament, but withdrew with injuries.

Juniors

Below is a list of the sixteen seeds for the boys and girls singles and the eight qualifiers for each event.

Singles seeds

Wheelchair tennis

The field consisted of top seven ranked players in the men's and women's singles, the three top three ranked players in the quad singles category and one wildcard was chosen for each draw.

Singles seeds

External links