The 2016 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park between 18–31 January 2016. It was the 104th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam tournament 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 the men's singles title and thus won a record-equalling sixth Australian Open title. Serena Williams was the defending champion in the women's singles but failed to defend her title, losing to Angelique Kerber in the final; by winning, Kerber became the first German player of any gender to win a Grand Slam title since Steffi Graf won her last such title at the 1999 French Open.
As in previous years, this year's tournament's title sponsor was Kia.
Men's Singles
World number one Novak Djokovic hammered a misfiring Andy Murray in straight sets to win a record-equalling sixth Australian Open title and strengthen his grip on men's tennis.
The Serbian world number one swept to a 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (7/3) victory in two hours, 53 minutes to hand Murray his fifth defeat in the Australian Open final.
Djokovic equalled the tally of Australia's Roy Emerson, who won the tournament six times between 1961 and 1967, an achievement that has gone unmatched in the 49 years since.
It was also Djokovic's 11th Grand Slam title, and he moved into equal fifth place with Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg behind 17-time leader Roger Federer.
Women's Singles
Angelique Kerber upset Serena Williams 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to win the Australian Open title, ending the six-time champion’s unbeaten streak in finals here and winning a major title for the first time.
Williams was an overwhelming favourite at Melbourne Park, where she had won all six previous times she’d reached the final, and was trying to equal Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles.
For the second time in as many majors, though, she fell short.
Williams won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon titles last year before losing to Roberta Vinci in the US Open semi-finals. She was so close to a calendar—year Grand Slam in 2015, but has no chance to push for that honour after losing the first major of the year.
Men's Doubles
Jamie Murray booked his place in a third consecutive Grand Slam final as the Brit and Brazilian Bruno Soares cruised to victory in the last-four of the Australian Open.
It took all of 56 minutes for seventh seeds Murray and Soares to see off the unseeded French pair Adrian Mannarino and Lucas Pouille 6-3, 6-1 on Rod Laver Arena.
Murray reached the final at both Wimbledon and the US Open last year with Australian John Peers before the pair split up at the end of the season.
Women's Doubles
Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza maintained their perfect record in Grand Slam doubles finals, beating the Czech pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 7-6, 6-3 at the Australian Open on Friday to extend their winning streak to 36 matches on the way to a third major title.
Mirza and Hingis beat Hlavackova and Hradecka in two tight, topsy-turvy sets 7-6 (1), 6-3 in a match that lasted one hour, 49 minutes.
The win marks the 12th title together, the third straight Slam and the 36th consecutive win for the Indo-Swiss duo, popularly dubbed SanTina on social media.
Mixed Doubles
Bruno Soares secured his second Australian Open title by winning the mixed doubles alongside Elena Vesnina.
The Brazilian returned to the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Sunday just 16 hours after capturing the men's doubles crown with Britain's Jamie Murray.
But Soares coped admirably with the quick turnaround as he and Russian Vesnina won the last four points of the match tiebreaker after going 3-0 down to triumph 6-4 4-6 10-5 against American Coco Vandeweghe and Hora Tecau of Romania.
2016 Australian Open | |
---|---|
Date | 18–31 January |
Edition | 104th |
Category | Grand Slam |
Draw | 128S/64D/32X |
Prize money | A$44,000,000 |
Surface | Hard (Plexicushion) |
Location | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
Venue | Melbourne Park |
Champions | |
Men's Singles | |
Novak Djokovic | |
Women's Singles | |
Angelique Kerber | |
Men's Doubles | |
Jamie Murray / Bruno Soares | |
Women's Doubles | |
Martina Hingis / Sania Mirza | |
Mixed Doubles | |
Elena Vesnina / Bruno Soares |