The 2021 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, on 8–21 February 2021. It was the 109th edition of the Australian Open, the 53rd in the Open Era, and the first Major tournament of the year. It was originally scheduled for 18–31 January 2021, but was postponed by three weeks to February due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was part of the 2021 ATP Tour and the 2021 WTA Tour.
The tournament consists of events for professional players in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Wheelchair players competed in singles and doubles tournaments. As in previous years, the tournament's main sponsor was Kia.
Novak Djokovic successfully defended the men's singles title as he claimed his 18th Grand Slam title, defeating Daniil Medvedev in straight sets. Sofia Kenin was the defending Women's Singles champion, but she lost to Kaia Kanepi in the second round. In the final, Naomi Osaka claimed her fourth Grand Slam singles title, defeating first-time Major finalist Jennifer Brady in straight sets.
Tournament
The 2021 Australian Open is the 109th edition of the tournament, held at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The tournament is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is part of the 2021 ATP Tour and the 2021 WTA Tour calendars under the Grand Slam category. The tournament consists of both men's and women's singles and doubles draws as well as the mixed doubles events. There are singles and doubles events for both boys and girls (players under 18), which are part of the Grade A category of tournaments. There are 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 is played on hard courts and is taking place across a series of 25 courts, the four main show courts Rod Laver Arena, John Cain Arena (formerly Melbourne Arena), Margaret Court Arena and 1573 Arena.
For the first time in Grand Slam history, Hawk-Eye Live electronic line judging was used for all matches. Thus, calls could no longer be challenged by the players.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
On 17 December 2020, due to the mandatory 14-day quarantine on all arrivals in the country, it was announced that the start of the tournament would be delayed by three weeks from 18 January 2021 to 8 February. This was to provide time for those who qualify to quarantine before the tournament. For the same reasons, the men's and women's qualifying matches were held outside of the country in Doha and Dubai respectively, and the junior and legends matches were not played.
To honour key workers, recordings of their voices were broadcast for line calls as part of the electronic system.
On 4 February 2021, all of the scheduled day's events leading up to the tournament, including the ATP Cup and warm-ups, had to be suspended after a 26-year-old man working at the hotel players were quarantining at tested positive for COVID-19. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews stated that the 8 February start would not be affected due to the schedule change. The events originally scheduled for 4 February as well as the draw ceremonies were held the next day.
The hard quarantine policy was viewed as significantly affecting the tournament bracket, especially in women's singles. In all, 26 players in the women's singles bracket were quarantined, with 12 of them seeded. Nine quarantined players, including four seeds (one of them, past Australian Open winner Angelique Kerber), lost in the first round to players who had not been quarantined. Of the 13 quarantined players who survived the first round, five (including two seeds) lost in the second round, and only 22 seed Jennifer Brady advanced past the third round. While the men's singles draw had more quarantined players (29 in all), the only seeded player among that group was No. 25 Benoît Paire. Six first-round matches were between players in this group; of the other 17 players who had been quarantined (including Paire), only Pablo Cuevas won his first-round match. The six survivors all lost in the second round.
Spectator restrictions On 30 January 2021, Victorian sports minister Martin Pakula announced that the number of spectators would be limited to 30,000 per day during most of the tournament, which is around 50 percent of normal spectator capacity. Actual attendance was generally below this number, with a total attendance of 98,512 spectators during the first 10 days of the tournament. The last five days of the tournament would have up to 25,000 spectators per day.
On 12 February 2021, a five-day snap lockdown and stay-at-home order was declared by the Victoria State Government beginning at 11:59 p.m. AEDT, due to a cluster of active cases linked to another quarantine hotel in Melbourne, presumed to involve a highly-infectious variant of SARS-CoV2. As a result, the tournament was played behind closed doors from 11:30 p.m. AEDT that night; the final match of the day between Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz was suspended at that time to escort spectators from the premises.
On 17 February 2021, organizers announced that spectators would be allowed to return beginning 18 February. Each session was capped at 7,477 spectators.
Singles players Men's singles Men's singles players Champion Runner-up Novak Djokovic Daniil Medvedev Semifinals out Aslan Karatsev (Q) Stefanos Tsitsipas Quarterfinals out Alexander Zverev Grigor Dimitrov Andrey Rublev Rafael Nadal 4th round out Milos Raonic Dušan Lajović Dominic Thiem Félix Auger-Aliassime Casper Ruud Mackenzie McDonald (PR) Matteo Berrettini Fabio Fognini 3rd round out Taylor Fritz Márton Fucsovics Pedro Martínez Adrian Mannarino Nick Kyrgios Pablo Carreño Busta Denis Shapovalov Diego Schwartzman Feliciano López Radu Albot Lloyd Harris Filip Krajinović Mikael Ymer Karen Khachanov Alex de Minaur Cameron Norrie 2nd round out Frances Tiafoe Reilly Opelka Stan Wawrinka Corentin Moutet Emil Ruusuvuori Alexander Bublik Miomir Kecmanović Maxime Cressy (Q) Dominik Koepfer Ugo Humbert Alex Bolt (WC) Jiří Veselý Bernard Tomic (Q) James Duckworth Egor Gerasimov Alexandre Müller (LL) Thiago Monteiro Lorenzo Sonego Tommy Paul Christopher O'Connell (WC) Alexei Popyrin (WC) Borna Ćorić Pablo Andújar Roberto Carballés Baena Thanasi Kokkinakis (WC) Carlos Alcaraz (Q) Ričardas Berankis Tomáš Macháč (Q) Salvatore Caruso Pablo Cuevas Roman Safiullin (Q) Michael Mmoh (Q) 1st round out Jérémy Chardy Stefano Travaglia Lu Yen-hsun (PR) Albert Ramos Viñolas Pedro Sousa Marc Polmans (WC) John Millman Federico Coria Gaël Monfils Yoshihito Nishioka Aljaž Bedene Sergiy Stakhovsky (Q) Dennis Novak Kamil Majchrzak Taro Daniel (LL) Marcos Giron Mikhail Kukushkin Hugo Dellien (LL) Frederico Ferreira Silva (Q) Yasutaka Uchiyama Marin Čilić Norbert Gombos Kimmer Coppejans (Q) Kei Nishikori Jannik Sinner Yūichi Sugita Damir Džumhur (LL) Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (LL) Benoît Paire Gianluca Mager Juan Ignacio Londero Elias Ymer (Q) Yannick Hanfmann Andrej Martin Li Tu (WC) Sam Querrey Jordan Thompson Nikoloz Basilashvili Jan-Lennard Struff Roberto Bautista Agut David Goffin Mikael Torpegaard (LL) Marco Cecchinato Guido Pella Robin Haase (LL) Quentin Halys (Q) Attila Balázs Vasek Pospisil Gilles Simon Kwon Soon-woo Botic van de Zandschulp (Q) Hubert Hurkacz Aleksandar Vukic (WC) Sumit Nagal (WC) Mario Vilella Martínez (Q) Kevin Anderson Pierre-Hugues Herbert Henri Laaksonen (Q) Andreas Seppi Tennys Sandgren Dan Evans Ilya Ivashka Viktor Troicki (Q) Laslo Đere
Women's singles Women's singles players Champion Runner-up Naomi Osaka Jennifer Brady Semifinals out Karolína Muchová Serena Williams Quarterfinals out Ashleigh Barty Jessica Pegula Hsieh Su-wei Simona Halep 4th round out Shelby Rogers Elise Mertens Donna Vekić Elina Svitolina Markéta Vondroušová Garbiñe Muguruza Aryna Sabalenka Iga Świątek 3rd round out Ekaterina Alexandrova Anett Kontaveit Belinda Bencic Karolína Plíšková Kaia Kanepi Kaja Juvan (Q) Kristina Mladenovic Yulia Putintseva Sara Errani (Q) Sorana Cîrstea Zarina Diyas Ons Jabeur Ann Li Anastasia Potapova Fiona Ferro Veronika Kudermetova 2nd round out Daria Gavrilova (WC) Barbora Krejčíková Heather Watson Olga Danilović (Q) Svetlana Kuznetsova Zhu Lin Mona Barthel (PR) Danielle Collins Sofia Kenin Nadia Podoroska Madison Brengle Mayar Sherif (Q) Samantha Stosur (WC) Nao Hibino Alison Van Uytvanck Coco Gauff Bianca Andreescu Venus Williams Rebecca Marino (Q) Petra Kvitová Liudmila Samsonova (Q) Bernarda Pera Anna Karolína Schmiedlová (LL) Caroline Garcia Daria Kasatkina Alizé Cornet Tímea Babos (Q) Nina Stojanović Camila Giorgi Elena Rybakina Varvara Gracheva Ajla Tomljanović 1st round out Danka Kovinić Sara Sorribes Tormo Zheng Saisai Martina Trevisan Aliaksandra Sasnovich Kristýna Plíšková Francesca Jones (Q) Petra Martić Lauren Davis Barbora Strýcová Whitney Osuigwe (Q) Leylah Annie Fernandez Jeļena Ostapenko Elisabetta Cocciaretto (Q) Ana Bogdan Jasmine Paolini Maddison Inglis (WC) Anastasija Sevastova Christina McHale Wang Yafan Aliona Bolsova Arina Rodionova (WC) Chloé Paquet (Q) Johanna Konta Victoria Azarenka Destanee Aiava (WC) Astra Sharma (WC) Maria Sakkari Sloane Stephens Clara Burel (Q) Jil Teichmann Marie Bouzková Mihaela Buzărnescu (LL) Tsvetana Pironkova (Q) Kirsten Flipkens Wang Qiang Rebecca Peterson Kimberly Birrell (WC) Patricia Maria Țig Greet Minnen (Q) Margarita Gasparyan (LL) Paula Badosa Tamara Zidanšek Angelique Kerber Andrea Petkovic Mayo Hibi (Q) Polona Hercog Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Viktória Kužmová Katie Boulter (PR) Valeria Savinykh (Q) Zhang Shuai Alison Riske Ysaline Bonaventure (LL) Irina-Camelia Begu Laura Siegemund Arantxa Rus Yaroslava Shvedova (PR) Kateřina Siniaková Vera Zvonareva (PR) Marta Kostyuk Anna Blinkova Misaki Doi Lizette Cabrera (WC)
Events
Men's singles
Novak Djokovic def. Daniil Medvedev, 7–5, 6–2, 6–2 The Men's Singles final was the last match of the tournament, taking place on 21 February. Top seed Novak Djokovic defeated No. 4 Daniil Medvedev in straight sets to win his 18th Grand Slam singles championship and his ninth overall (and third consecutive) Australian Open, in a game that lasted an hour and 53 minutes.
Djokovic started the match winning the first three games of the first set and advancing to a 3–0 lead. In this period, he won 13 of the first 16 points, limiting Medvedev to three. Medvedev mounted a brief comeback to win the next three games to match Djokovic 3–3, and both of the players held the next two of their games to reach a scoreline of 5–5. Djokovic broke Medvedev's next serve to win the first set 7–5.
Djokovic started the second set with a fault, and a subsequent break for Medvedev. However, Medvedev went on to lose the next two games of his serve. The set ended with Djokovic winning 6–2.
Djokovic had an early lead in the third set, winning the first three games to gain a lead of 3–0. Medvedev was then able to win his first game with a lunge and lob at the net, which Djokovic was unable to return. Both would hold the next two games off their own serve with the score reaching 5–2. Djokovic went on to win the next game, breaking Medvedev's serve, with the final point having him reach to the net and hit a cross-shot across to win the championship. Through the match, Medvedev made a total of 67 errors, of which 30 were unforced errors, while Djokovic had 17 unforced errors. This was Djokovic's ninth Australian open win and 18th grand slams title. 2001 Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanišević, who was part of Djokovic's coaching staff, praised his play and total control through the game, calling his performance, "a masterpiece".
Women's singles
Naomi Osaka def. Jennifer Brady, 6–4, 6–3