The 2011 women's draw was missing its defending champion Serena Williams who pulled out in late 2010 due to ligament damage. World number one Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark was the number one seed. The Dane headed up the top ten seeds which included Vera Zvonareva, three time US Open champion Kim Clijsters, seven time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, Samantha Stosur, reigning French Open Champion Francesca Schiavone, Jelena Janković, Victoria Azarenka, Li Na and Shahar Pe'er. Former Grand Slam champions, Justine Henin, Ana Ivanović, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Sharapova were also seeded.
The start of the 2011 Australian Open saw all the seeds apart from Rezaï, Hantuchová, Dulgheru. The biggest upset of the first round was Ivanović losing 10–8 in the final set to Ekaterina Makarova while Schiavone survived after being a set down to win the final set. The biggest loser in the second round was Janković as she lost to Peng in straight sets. The Serb was not the only seed to exit though as Iveta Benešová defeated Maria Kirilenko, Martinez–Sanchez lost to Cornet, Kleybanova, Kanepi, Pironkova, Bartoli and Wickmayer all joined her on the plane home. While Schiavone had to survive another final set decider this time winning it 9–7. The third round saw Kutznetsova defeat Henin, in what turned out to be the Belgium's last ever match as she announced her retirement in the second week of the tournament. Whilst Andrea Petkovic had a virtual bye into round four as Williams retired after just seven points of their match. Makarova caused another upset as she knocked out Nadia Petrova while Benešová defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final set. Other seeds who went out to other seeded players were Cibulková, Peer who lost in the final set. While Petra Kvitová ended home hopes as she disposed of Stosur, while Sharapova had to come from a set down to progress to the next round.
The fourth round witnessed women's tennis history, as the match between Kuznetsova and Schiavone broke records. The match became the longest match, in terms of time for women in a Grand Slam as it lasted for 4 hours, and 44 minutes. At 8–7 in the final set Kutznetsova had three match points, but the Italian saved all three. In the next game Schiavone broke her opponents serve but touched the net after hitting the winner, meaning the point went to Kutznetsova, when holding three break points. Kutznetsova had another three match points in the next game before a run of four games in a row where the serve was broken. Finally after breaking in the previous game and missing three match points Schiavone closed the match out to win 16–14 in the final set. Other fourth round matches saw Sevastova's run end against Wozniacki and Makarova's end against Clijsters, while Petkovic upset Sharapova in straight sets. Other upsets saw the seeded players of Li and Kvitová defeat higher seeded players.
The quarterfinals witnessed Wozniacki put an end to Schiavone's run by winning a final set decider. Into the semifinals with the Dane were Li who defeated Petkovic, Clijsters who defeated Radwańska and Zvonerava who took care of Kvitová. In the first semifinal Li caused an upset, as she saved match point, to defeat the world number one Wozniacki in three sets. Her opponent in the final, Clijsters, won in straight sets against Zvonerava. In the final Clijsters came from a set down to claim her first Australian Open title. It was her fourth grand slam title in her career and second consecutive slam having won the US Open in 2010.
Championship match result
The 2011 men's doubles competition saw the two-time defending champions and four-time champions overall come back to defend the two previous titles in the team of Bob and Mike Bryan, which they were the number one seeded team in the draw. Out of all of the seeded players, the teams that lost in the first round were the teams of 7th seeded Lukáš Dlouhý and Paul Hanley, 9th seeded team of Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman, 11th seeds Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecău, Nicolás Almagro and Marc López the 15th seeds, Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares the 16th seeded team. Those teams that lost in the second round of the event are the two teams of Mark Knowles and Michal Mertiňák the 12 seeds, and the 14th seeded Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram. The only third round exit was by 13th seeded Marcel Granollers and Tommy Robredo. All of the top eight seeds made the quarterfinal or better with the lone exception of the seventh seeded team. Lastly, this event saw four teams exit in the quarterfinal round, which those was the 4th seeded team of Łukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach, Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski the 5 seeded team, the 6th seeded and 2010 Wimbledon Champions Jürgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner, and the 8th seeded team of Michaël Llodra and Nenad Zimonjić.
Thus, only three seeded teams survived to make it to the semifinals, which the lone team to lose during this stage was the second seeded team of Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor. This set up a dynamic final of the 1st and 3rd seeded teams respectively in the Bryan Brothers and the Indian duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, which the Indian team never has won the Australian Open in men's doubles. This would be the third time that they would lose in the final, but albeit in different years.
So, this was the Bryan Brothers' fifth Australian Open title in Men's doubles in the past six years, which this win was the third consecutive title at the event for them having won in 2009 and 2010, and the other two years they won were in 2006 and 2007. This was the Bryan Brothers tenth Men's Doubles Grand Slam title for their careers.
Championship match result
The 2011 women's doubles competition was wide open with no team in the field having previously won a grand slam. Argentina's Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta of Italy led the field as the number one seeds, who had won seven titles in 2010 including the WTA championships but they had never been past a Grand Slam semifinal. Second seeds were the French Open finalists Květa Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik, who had already won a tournament in 2011, the ASB Classic. Number three seeds are the US Open finalists Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova; the number four seeds are the 2009 WTA Champions Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez with Cara Black and Anastasia Rodionova seeded fifth heading the field.
All the seeds made it through the opening round with the exception of Francesca Schiavone and Rennae Stubbs, who lost winning just five games in what is Stubbs' last Australian Open. In round two the biggest casualties were the departure of the number four seeds; Llagostera Vives and Martínez Sánchez in straight sets. In the third round the number six, seven and eighth seeds all crashed out. In the quarterfinals Huber won the battle of the ex-partners as she downed Black's team to set up a semi final with Dulko and Penetta. The other semi was filled by Azarenka and Kirilenko and the number two seeds. In the semis the Number one seeds advanced to the final where after a shock they faced Azerenka and Kilrenko. In the final Dulko and Pennetta came from a set down to win.
Championship match result
The mixed doubles field was led by top seeds and US Open champions Bob Bryan and Liezel Huber. Other significant seeds were: number two seeds Daniel Nestor and Katarina Srebotnik, Nestor's ex-doubles partner Nenad Zimonjić and Maria Kirilenko are the third seeds. Fourth seeds were defending champions Leander Paes and Cara Black, while the fifth and sixth seeds were Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Květa Peschke and Wesley Moodie and Lisa Raymond.