The 2011 Australian Open was a tennis tournament featuring six different competitions, and part of the 2011 ATP World Tour, the 2011 WTA Tour, the ITF Junior Tour, and the NEC Tour, as tournaments for professional, junior, and wheelchair players were held. The tournament took place at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia from 17 to 30 January, it was the 99th edition of the Australian Open and the first Grand Slam event of 2011. The tournament was played on hardcourts and was organised by the International Tennis Federation and Tennis Australia.
Roger Federer was unsuccessful in his title defence, being defeated by Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, and Serena Williams was unable to defend her title due to a foot injury she suffered shortly after winning Wimbledon last year. Djokovic won the Australian Open for the second time, and Kim Clijsters, the runner-up to Justine Henin-Hardenne in 2004, won her maiden Australian Open. In the men's doubles the Bryan brothers won their fifth Australian Open while Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta won their maiden Grand Slam title in the women's doubles. Daniel Nestor claimed his second mixed doubles Grand Slam alongside Katarina Srebotnik who won her fourth mixed title, her first Australian, leaving her one away from a career Grand Slam, as she has now won three of the Grand Slams, needing just Wimbledon to complete her collection.
In the junior tournaments both the singles and doubles titles in the boys' and girls' events were won by Jiří Veselý and An-Sophie Mestach. Vesely won the doubles alongside Filip Horanský whilst Mestach won her doubles crown with Demi Schuurs. Vesely and Mestach won their first Grand Slam titles and became the first players to achieve the junior double together in any Grand Slam since Kristian Pless and Virginie Razzano achieved this at the 1999 Australian Open.
Shingo Kunieda and Esther Vergeer both won the singles and doubles in the men's and women's wheelchair tennis events respectively. Kunieda won his fourth consecutive Australian Open, his fifth overall. In the doubles Kunieda was partnered to the title by Maikel Scheffers. Vergeer's singles win was her eighth Australian Open crown, her seventeenth overall, and the fourth time that she has not lost a game during a Grand Slam final. The win in the final was her 404th consecutive match win, she was partnered by Sharon Walraven in the doubles. In the Quad events David Wagner won the singles while Andy Lapthorne and Peter Norfolk took the doubles crown.
Tournament
The 2011 Australian Open was the 99th edition of the Australian Open, held at Melbourne Park, in Melbourne, Victoria. The tournament was an event run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Tennis Australia, that was part of the 2011 ATP World Tour and the 2011 WTA Tour calendars, under the Grand Slam category. The tournament consisted of men's and women's singles and doubles draws as well as a mixed doubles event. There were also singles and doubles events for boys and girls (players under 18), part of the Grade A category of tournaments of the junior tour. There were also events for wheelchair tennis players, they competed in two categories: Paraplegic players where men and women play in separate competitions and a category for Quadriplegics, shortened to Quads and is a mixed event. These competitions are part of the NEC tour, under the Grand Slam category. The tournament was played on Plexicushion Prestige AO hard courts, which were rated a medium-fast pace by the ITF. The tournament took place over twenty-five courts, including three showcourts: the Hisense Arena, the Margaret Court Arena and the Rod Laver Arena (the Hisense and Rod Laver Arenas have roofs which allow play to continue indoors should the roof be needed).
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.
Senior points StageMen's singlesMen's doublesWomen's singlesWomen's doubles Champion 2000 Runner up 1200 1400Semifinals 720 900Quarterfinals 360 500Round of 16 180 280Round of 32 90 160Round of 64 45 0 100 5Round of 128 10 – 5 –Qualifier 25 60Qualifying 3rd round 16 50 Qualifying 2nd round 8 40Qualifying 1st round 0 2
Junior points StageBoys singlesBoys doublesGirls singlesGirls doubles Champion 250 180 250 180 Runner up 180 120 180 120Semifinals 120 80 120 80Quarterfinals 80 50 80 50Round of 16 50 30 50 30Round of 32 30 n/a 30 n/aQualifier who loses in first round 25n/a 25n/aQualifying Final round 20n/a 20 n/a
Wheelchair points StageMen's singlesMen's doublesWomen's singlesWomen's doublesQuad singlesQuad doubles Champion 800 Runner up 500 100Semifinals/3rd 375 100 375 100 375 n/aQuarterfinals/4th 100 n/a 100 n/a 100 n/a
Prize money The 2011 Australian Open offered record prize money to both men and women of a total of A$25 million (US$24 million), up 3.8% on the total prize money from 2010. The winners of the singles titles took home A$2.2 million (US$2.1 million) with the finalists receiving A$1.1 million (US$1 million). To put it into perspective Kim Clijsters and Rafael Nadal both took home US$1.7 million for winning the 2010 US Open. Below is the list of prize money given to each player in the main draw of the professional competitions; all prize money is in Australian dollars (A$); doubles prize money is distributed per pair.
Men's and women's singles Winners: $2,200,000 Runners-up: $1,100,000 Semi-finalists: $420,000 Quarter-finalists: $210,000 Fourth round: $93,000 Third round: $54,500 Second round: $32,000 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
Fundraising for the Queensland floods
Following widespread flooding in Queensland, several players decided to raise money for the cause. The Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women's Tennis Association donated ten dollars for every ace served during the Australian Open as well as during the two pre-tournament joint events in Brisbane and Sydney. In total, the ATP and WTA raised $51,070.
In Brisbane, Andy Roddick and Sam Stosur pledged a hundred dollars for every ace they hit, which was also matched by Australian player Matthew Ebden when he played in Sydney the following week. Roddick later doubled his pledge to two hundred dollars. In total, Roddick hit fifty four aces, raising just under eleven thousand dollars for his efforts during the Brisbane tournament. In addition to this, the Brisbane International donated another five thousand dollars.
American player Bethanie Mattek-Sands pledged to donate five percent of her prize money from the Hobart International and Australian Open to the cause. The ITF donated $25,000 towards the rebuilding of tennis facilities.
Rally for Relief On 16 January, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijsters, Novak Djokovic, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Justine Henin, Ana Ivanovic, Victoria Azarenka, Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki and Queenslanders Sam Stosur and Pat Rafter played a charity match at Rod Laver Arena to raise money for the flood efforts. Tickets to the event cost twenty dollars, and other events – such as an auction of shirts signed by the players – also took place. Queensland Energy Resources pledged to match the total amount of money raised. The event raised $1.8 million.
Singles players Men's singles ChampionRunner-up Novak Djokovic Andy Murray Semifinals out David Ferrer Roger Federer Quarterfinals out Rafael Nadal Alexandr Dolgopolov Tomáš Berdych Stan Wawrinka 4th round out Marin Čilić Milos Raonic (Q) Robin Söderling Jürgen Melzer Fernando Verdasco Nicolás Almagro Andy Roddick Tommy Robredo3rd round out Bernard Tomic (WC) John Isner Mikhail Youzhny Richard Berankis Jan Hernych (Q) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Marcos Baghdatis Guillermo García López Richard Gasquet Kei Nishikori Ivan Ljubičić Viktor Troicki Robin Haase Gaël Monfils Sergiy Stakhovsky Xavier Malisse2nd round out Ryan Sweeting (Q) Feliciano López Radek Štěpánek Santiago Giraldo Blaz Kavčič (Q) Michaël Llodra David Nalbandian Michael Russell Gilles Müller (Q) Thomaz Bellucci Benjamin Becker Andreas Seppi Pere Riba Juan Martín del Potro (PR) Eduardo Schwank Illya Marchenko Philipp Kohlschreiber Adrian Mannarino Florian Mayer Janko Tipsarević Igor Andreev Benoît Paire (WC) Nicolas Mahut (Q) Ivan Dodig Igor Kunitsyn Juan Mónaco Grigor Dimitrov (Q) Frederico Gil Mardy Fish Łukasz Kubot Albert Montañés Gilles Simon1st round out Marcos Daniel Daniel Gimeno Traver Jérémy Chardy Alejandro Falla Florent Serra Denis Gremelmayr (Q) Rui Machado Donald Young (Q) Marsel İlhan Kevin Anderson Björn Phau Juan Ignacio Chela Lleyton Hewitt Marinko Matosevic (WC) Matthew Ebden (WC) Jarkko Nieminen Potito Starace Simon Stadler (Q) Denis Istomin Ricardo Mello Ernests Gulbis Mikhail Kukushkin Arnaud Clément Philipp Petzschner Vincent Millot (Q) Carsten Ball (WC) Dudi Sela Grega Žemlja (Q) Michael Berrer Leonardo Mayer Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo Karol Beck Marco Crugnola (Q) Tobias Kamke Ryan Harrison (WC) Frank Dancevic (Q) Nikolay Davydenko Fabio Fognini Mischa Zverev Rainer Schüttler Stéphane Robert (Q) Filippo Volandri Flavio Cipolla (Q) Peter Luczak (WC) Dmitry Tursunov (PR) Brian Dabul Ivo Karlović Marcel Granollers Jan Hájek Michał Przysiężny Carlos Berlocq Simon Greul (LL) Teymuraz Gabashvili Andrey Golubev Pablo Cuevas Thiemo de Bakker Victor Hănescu Somdev Devvarman (WC) Daniel Brands Sam Querrey Dustin Brown Pablo Andújar Lu Yen-hsun Lukáš Lacko
Women's singles