The 2016 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park between 18 and 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-equaling 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. This edition set a new attendance record for the tournament of 720,363.
Tournament
The 2016 Australian Open was the 104th edition of the tournament and was held at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The tournament was run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and was part of the 2016 ATP World Tour and the 2016 WTA Tour calendars under the Grand Slam category. The tournament consisted of both men's and women's singles and doubles draws as well as a mixed doubles event. There were singles and doubles events for both boys and girls (players under 18), which was part of the Grade A category of tournaments, and also singles, doubles and quad events for men's and women's wheelchair tennis players as part of the NEC tour under the Grand Slam category.
The tournament was played on hard courts and take place over a series of 25 courts, including the three main show courts: Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena and Margaret Court Arena.
Broadcast In Australia, selected key matches were broadcast live by the Seven Network. The majority of matches were shown on the network's primary channel Channel Seven, however during news programming nationwide and most night matches in Perth, coverage shifted to either 7Two or 7mate. Additionally, every match was also available to be streamed live through a free 7Tennis mobile app.
Internationally, ESPN held the rights for America and Central America, broadcasting matches on ESPN2 and ESPN3 in the United States as well as regionally on ESPN International. ESPN also sub-licenses matches to Tennis Channel. Other broadcasters included beIN Sports in the Middle East, SuperSport in Africa, Eurosport through Europe (plus NOS Netherlands and SRG SSR in Switzerland), CCTV, iQiyi and SMG in China, Fiji One in Fiji, Sony ESPN in India, both Wowow and NHK in Japan, Sky in New Zealand and Fox Sports Asia in selected markets in the Asia Pacific region. In Canada, TSN broadcast matches across multiple channels.
Events
Spectator safety Spectator safety became a major issue during the tournament, with up to four separate cases reported: On Day 2, play was suspended during the fourth set of Bernard Tomic's first round match against Denis Istomin for 20 minutes after an elderly spectator collapsed due to heat stress; she was subsequently treated with an EpiPen and taken away from Hisense Arena. On Day 4, Ana Ivanovic's second round match against Anastasija Sevastova was interrupted in the first set when another elderly spectator fell down a set of stairs, delaying play by 25 minutes. On Day 6, in the most serious case, Ivanovic was again involved in a match that had to be suspended, after her coach Nigel Sears suffered a heart attack during the second set of her match against Madison Keys. Sears, who is the father-in-law of Andy Murray, had to be stretchered out of the stands and play on Rod Laver Arena was suspended for an hour. Having led by a set and a break at the time, Ivanovic proceeded to lose the match in three sets. Sears was later taken to hospital where he eventually made a full recovery. On Day 7, Sam Groth's mother fell down a set of stairs on Hisense Arena during the second set of her son and Lleyton Hewitt's doubles match against Jack Sock and Vasek Pospisil, causing play to be suspended by 20 minutes. She was later able to walk out of the court unassisted.
Maria Sharapova doping controversy On 7 March 2016, five weeks after the conclusion of the tournament, world number seven Maria Sharapova announced at a press conference in Los Angeles that she had failed a drug test following her quarter-final defeat by Serena Williams on 26 January. Sharapova confessed to taking the substance meldonium, which was placed on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances on 1 January; she was later suspended for two years (later reduced to fifteen months on appeal), backdated to 26 January, and was subsequently docked the $A375,000 she earned for reaching the quarter-finals.
Point and prize money distribution
Point distribution Below is a series of tables for each of the competitions showing the ranking points on offer for each event.
Senior points EventWFSFQFRound of 16Round of 32Round of 64Round of 128QQ3Q2Q1Men's singles20001200720360180904510251680Men's doubles0 13007804302401307010403020210
Wheelchair points EventWFSF/3rdQF/4thSingles800500375100Doubles800500100Quad singles800500100800100
Junior points EventWFSFQFRound of 16Round of 32QQ3Boys' singles37527018012075302520Girls' singlesBoys' doubles2701801207545Girls' doubles
Prize money The Australian Open total prize money for 2016 was increased by four million Australian dollars to tournament record A$44,000,000.
EventWFSFQFRound of 16Round of 32Round of 64Q3Q2Q1SinglesA$3,400,000A$1,700,000A$750,000A$375,000A$193,000A$108,000A$67,000A$38,500A$20,000A$12,000A$6,000Doubles *A$635,000A$315,000A$157,500A$78,500A$43,000A$25,500A$16,500Mixed doubles *A$157,000A$78,500A$39,250A$18,000A$9,000A$4,500 1Qualifiers prize money was also the Round of 128 prize money. *per team
Singles players 2016 Australian Open – Men's singles Champion Runner-up Novak Djokovic Andy Murray Semifinals out Roger Federer Milos Raonic Quarterfinals out Kei Nishikori Tomáš Berdych Gaël Monfils David Ferrer 4th round out Gilles Simon Jo-Wilfried Tsonga David Goffin Roberto Bautista Agut Andrey Kuznetsov Stan Wawrinka John Isner Bernard Tomic 3rd round out Andreas Seppi Federico Delbonis Pierre-Hugues Herbert (Q) Guillermo García López Grigor Dimitrov Dominic Thiem Marin Čilić Nick Kyrgios Dudi Sela Stéphane Robert (Q) Viktor Troicki Lukáš Rosol Steve Johnson Feliciano López John Millman João Sousa 2nd round out Quentin Halys (WC) Denis Kudla Renzo Olivo (Q) Evgeny Donskoy Omar Jasika (WC) Noah Rubin (WC) Daniel Brands (Q) Austin Krajicek Alexandr Dolgopolov Marco Trungelliti (Q) Nicolás Almagro Damir Džumhur Albert Ramos Dušan Lajović Pablo Cuevas Mirza Bašić (Q) Fernando Verdasco Jérémy Chardy Nicolas Mahut Rajeev Ram Tommy Robredo Tim Smyczek (Q) Jack Sock Radek Štěpánek (Q) Lleyton Hewitt (WC) Thomaz Bellucci Guido Pella Marcel Granollers Simone Bolelli Gilles Müller Santiago Giraldo Sam Groth 1st round out Chung Hyeon Ivan Dodig Filip Krajinović Teymuraz Gabashvili Ivo Karlović Jiří Veselý Íñigo Cervantes Vasek Pospisil Marcos Baghdatis Illya Marchenko Pablo Andújar Benoît Paire Paul-Henri Mathieu Víctor Estrella Burgos Wu Di (Q) Philipp Kohlschreiber Nikoloz Basilashvili Ričardas Berankis Jozef Kovalík (Q) Paolo Lorenzi Leonardo Mayer Julien Benneteau (PR) Kyle Edmund Sergiy Stakhovsky Thiemo de Bakker Borna Ćorić Sam Querrey Martin Kližan Pablo Carreño Yoshihito Nishioka (WC) Robin Haase Yuki Bhambri Rafael Nadal Benjamin Becker Ryan Harrison (Q) Ernests Gulbis Yūichi Sugita (Q) Marco Cecchinato Bjorn Fratangelo (LL) Kevin Anderson Lucas Pouille Malek Jaziri Daniel Gimeno Traver Daniel Muñoz de la Nava Taylor Fritz (Q) Taro Daniel Tatsuma Ito (Q) Dmitry Tursunov (PR) Peter Gojowczyk (Q) James Duckworth (WC) Jordan Thompson (WC) Aljaž Bedene Daniel Evans (Q) Steve Darcis Matthew Ebden (WC) Jerzy Janowicz Denis Istomin Brian Baker (PR) Diego Schwartzman Fabio Fognini Mikhail Kukushkin Donald Young Adrian Mannarino Alexander Zverev
2016 Australian Open – Women's singles Champion Runner-up Angelique Kerber Serena Williams Semifinals out Agnieszka Radwańska Johanna Konta Quarterfinals out Maria Sharapova Carla Suárez Navarro Victoria Azarenka Zhang Shuai (Q) 4th round out Margarita Gasparyan Belinda Bencic Anna-Lena Friedsam Daria Gavrilova Annika Beck Barbora Strýcová Ekaterina Makarova Madison Keys 3rd round out Daria Kasatkina Yulia Putintseva Kateryna Bondarenko Lauren Davis Monica Puig Roberta Vinci Elizaveta Kulichkova Kristina Mladenovic Madison Brengle Laura Siegemund Naomi Osaka (Q) Garbiñe Muguruza Denisa Allertová Karolína Plíšková Ana Ivanovic Varvara Lepchenko 2nd round out Hsieh Su-wei Ana Konjuh Kurumi Nara Han Xinyun (WC) Tímea Babos Svetlana Kuznetsova Magdaléna Rybáriková Aliaksandra Sasnovich Eugenie Bouchard Kristýna Plíšková (Q) Wang Qiang (Q) Irina Falconi Maria Sakkari (Q) Monica Niculescu Nicole Gibbs (Q) Petra Kvitová Alexandra Dulgheru Johanna Larsson Jelena Janković Timea Bacsinszky Danka Kovinić Elina Svitolina Vania King (PR) Kirsten Flipkens Zheng Saisai Sabine Lisicki Tatjana Maria Julia Görges Yaroslava Shvedova Anastasija Sevastova (Q) Lara Arruabarrena Alizé Cornet 1st round out Camila Giorgi Jeļena Ostapenko Urszula Radwańska Anna Karolína Schmiedlová Sara Errani Océane Dodin (WC) Mariana Duque Caroline Wozniacki Alison Riske Heather Watson Ajla Tomljanović Daniela Hantuchová Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Yanina Wickmayer Evgeniya Rodina Nao Hibino Christina McHale Aleksandra Krunić Magda Linette Samantha Stosur Sloane Stephens Lourdes Domínguez Lino Anna Tatishvili Tamira Paszek (Q) Viktorija Golubic (Q) Wang Yafan (Q) Teliana Pereira Andrea Petkovic Dominika Cibulková Klára Koukalová Lucie Hradecká Luksika Kumkhum (Q) Misaki Doi Storm Sanders (WC) CoCo Vandeweghe Irina-Camelia Begu Polona Hercog Kiki Bertens Priscilla Hon (WC) Kateřina Siniaková Alison Van Uytvanck Samantha Crawford (WC) Donna Vekić Victoria Duval (PR) Caroline Garcia Mona Barthel Mirjana Lučić-Baroni Anett Kontaveit Venus Williams Carina Witthöft Bethanie Mattek-Sands Petra Cetkovská (PR) Maddison Inglis (WC) Olga Govortsova Andreea Mitu Kimberly Birrell (WC) Zarina Diyas Tsvetana Pironkova Jarmila Wolfe Tammi Patterson (WC) Lesia Tsurenko Maryna Zanevska (Q) Bojana Jovanovski Simona Halep
Day-by-day summaries
Champions
Seniors
Men's singles
Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray, 6–1, 7–5, 7–6(7–3) Djokovic and Murray had faced one another 30 times prior to the final, with Djokovic victorious on 21 occasions. Murray had lost four Australian Open finals, three times to Djokovic, while the Serb had won the title five times. After an even first game, Djokovic broke Murray twice to lead 5–0, before Murray held. Djokovic took the winning game to secure the first set 6–1 in 30 minutes. The second set went with serve until Djokovic broke Murray to lead 4–3. The Scot broke back immediately and held his serve, but Djokovic broke in the eleventh game, then went on to hold serve, taking the second set 7–5. Djokovic broke the Murray serve in the first game of the third set, but Murray broke back to restore parity in the set at 3–3. The subsequent games went with serve and sent the set to a tie-break. Djokovic led 3–0 and 6–1 before finally securing the championship victory by three sets to love, with a 7–3 tie-break victory.
Women's singles
Angelique Kerber defeated Serena Williams, 6–4, 3–6, 6–4