2012 Australian Open

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.
Men's and women's singles
Winners: $2,300,000
Runners-up: $1,150,000
Semi-finalists: $437,000
Quarter-finalists: $218,500
Fourth round: $109,250
Third round: $54,625
Second round: $33,300
First round: $20,000
Men's and women's doubles
Winners: $454,500
Runners-up: $227,250
Semi-finalists: $113,000
Quarter-finalists: $56,000
Third round: $31,500
Second round: $17,200
First round: $9,600
Mixed doubles
Winners: $135,500
Runners-up: $67,500
Semi-finalists: $33,900
Quarter-finalists: $15,500
Second round: $7,800
First round: $3,800
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
Novak Djokovic defeated 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
Victoria Azarenka defeated Maria Sharapova, 6–3, 6–0
Men's doubles
Leander Paes / Radek Štěpánek defeated Bob Bryan / Mike Bryan, 7–6(7–1), 6–2
Women's doubles
Svetlana Kuznetsova / Vera Zvonareva defeated Sara Errani / Roberta Vinci, 5–7, 6–4, 6–3
Mixed doubles
Bethanie Mattek-Sands / Horia Tecău defeated Elena Vesnina / Leander Paes, 6–3, 5–7, [10–3]
Juniors
Boys' singles
Luke Saville defeated Filip Peliwo, 6–3, 5–7, 6–4
Girls' singles
Taylor Townsend defeated Yulia Putintseva, 6–1, 3–6, 6–3
Boys' doubles
Liam Broady / Joshua Ward-Hibbert defeated Adam Pavlásek / Filip Veger, 6–3, 6–2
Girls' doubles
Gabrielle Andrews / Taylor Townsend defeated Irina Khromacheva / Danka Kovinić, 5–7, 7–5, [10–6]
Other events
Wheelchair men's singles
Maikel Scheffers defeated Nicolas Peifer, 3–6, 7–6(7–2), 6–0
Wheelchair women's singles
Esther Vergeer defeated Aniek van Koot, 6–0, 6–0
Wheelchair quad singles
Peter Norfolk defeated David Wagner, 4–6, 6–4, 6–2
Wheelchair men's doubles
Ronald Vink / Robin Ammerlaan defeated Stéphane Houdet / Nicolas Peifer, 6–2, 4–6, 6–1
Wheelchair women's doubles
Esther Vergeer / Sharon Walraven defeated Aniek van Koot / Marjolein Buis, 4–6, 6–2, 6–4
Wheelchair quad doubles
Andrew Lapthorne / Peter Norfolk defeated David Wagner / 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.
Players
Seniors
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
Men's singles
Kenny de Schepper
James Duckworth
Lleyton Hewitt
Marinko Matosevic
Benjamin Mitchell
Greg Jones
Tatsuma Ito
Jesse Levine
Women's singles
Ashleigh Barty
Casey Dellacqua
Olivia Rogowska
Isabella Holland
Bojana Bobusic
Madison Keys
Aravane Rezaï
Zhang Shuai
Men's doubles
James Duckworth / Adam Feeney
Matthew Ebden / Chris Guccione
Colin Ebelthite / Marinko Matosevic
Lleyton Hewitt / Peter Luczak
Greg Jones / John-Patrick Smith
Benjamin Mitchell / Matt Reid
Luke Saville / Andrew Whittington
Women's doubles
Monique Adamczak / Olivia Rogowska
Ashleigh Barty / Laura Robson
Stephanie Bengson / Tyra Calderwood
Daniella Jeflea / Viktorija Rajicic
Sacha Jones / Bojana Bobusic
Tammi Patterson / Storm Sanders
Sally Peers / Isabella Holland
Mixed doubles
Ashleigh Barty / Benjamin Mitchell
Kimiko Date-Krumm / Kei Nishikori
Casey Dellacqua / Matthew Ebden
Jelena Dokić / Paul Hanley
Jarmila Gajdošová / Bruno Soares
Jelena Janković / Bernard Tomic
Olivia Rogowska / Marinko Matosevic
Protected ranking
Men's singles
Benjamin Becker
Tommy Haas
Women's singles
Anna Chakvetadze
Qualifying entries
Men's singles
Florent Serra
Peter Gojowczyk
Danai Udomchoke
Andrey Golubev
James Ward
Jesse Huta Galung
Lukáš Lacko
Denis Kudla
Jürgen Zopp
Matteo Viola
Alexander Kudryavtsev
Roberto Bautista Agut
Frederik Nielsen
Alex Kuznetsov
Björn Phau
Illya Marchenko
The following players received as a lucky loser:
Rik de Voest
Women's singles
Laura Robson
Irena Pavlovic
Andrea Hlaváčková
Stefanie Vögele
Alison Riske
Maria João Köhler
Paula Ormaechea
Nina Bratchikova
Valeria Savinykh
Chang Kai-chen
Varvara Lepchenko
Jamie Hampton
Withdrawals
The following players were accepted directly into the main tournament, but withdrew with injuries.
Men's singles
Women's singles
Juniors
Below is a list of the sixteen seeds for the boys and girls singles and the eight qualifiers for each event.
Singles seeds
Boys' singles
Girls' singles
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
Men's singles
Maikel Scheffers (1)
Stéphane Houdet (2)
Women
Esther Vergeer (1)
Aniek van Koot (2)
Quad
David Wagner (1)
Peter Norfolk (2)
References
External links