2016 Australian Open – Women's singles
Angelique Kerber defeated the defending champion Serena Williams in the final, 6–4, 3–6, 6–4 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2016 Australian Open. She became the first woman to win a singles major title after having saved a match point in the first round, which she did against Misaki Doi. She also became the first German to win a major since Steffi Graf at the 1999 French Open. Williams was attempting to equal Graf's Open Era record of 22 career major singles titles. Williams' loss in the final ended  her 8-match winning streak in major finals. The top three seeds (Williams, Simona Halep and Garbiñe Muguruza) were in contention for the world No. 1 ranking. However, Halep and Muguruza were eliminated in the first and third rounds, respectively, with Williams retaining the top spot at the end of the tournament. The twelve seeds that lost in the opening round was the most in the opening round of any women's major since the 32-seed draw was adopted at the 2001 Wimbledon Championships. Johanna Konta became the first British woman to reach the semifinals of a major since  Jo Durie in 1983. Zhang Shuai became the first qualifier to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals since Angélica Gavaldón in 1990. This was the first major appearance for future two-time champion Naomi Osaka. She lost to former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in the third round. This was the final professional event in which 2008 champion and former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova competed until the 2017 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. Sharapova failed a drug test at this tournament, testing positive for the banned substance meldonium, and was suspended from professional tennis for 15 months as a result. She  lost in the quarterfinals to Serena Williams. Seeds. Serena Williams "(final)"