No 1 ranked players Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams won the titles at the 103rd edition of the Australian Open Tennis Championship on Melbourne’s play fields. The contest was one of the four Grand Slam Championships that hand out awards of up to $33m.
The history of the championship goes back to 1905. It is the second most popular on the level of tennis championships after the US Open Tennis Championship, the first tennis championship to give the benefit of closed play fields during humid or hot weathers.
Novak Djokovic, who is currently ranked the ATP’s world No 1, won the ’men singles’ competition against Andy Murray, who is ranked 6th internationally, with a score of 7-6, 7-6, 6-3, 6-0. Djokovic also won against Slovenian Aljaz Bedene, Russian Andrey Kuznetsov, in the second round, before playing against Spanish Fernando Verdasco in the 3rd round. Djokovic won against Verdasco with a score of 7-6, 6-3, 6-4, maintaining his rank after a win against Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller in the 4th round.
In the quarterfinal, Djokovic’s first games were strong, against Canada’s Milos Raonic, who is ranked 8th internationally. Djokovic beat Canadian Raonic with a score of 7-6, 6-4, 6-2, and played against Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, ranked 4th internationally and winner of last year’s championship, in the semi-final game. The game was tough and Djokovic barely won with scores of 7-6, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0.
Djokovic’s win is the 5th in the Australian Open Championship and the 8th in the Grand Slam Championships. Djokovic boosted his winnings by ranking first in the singles game for men with 2,000 points, so that his overall score would total 13,045 points, a difference of 3,800 points to the closest competitor, Swiss player Roger Federer, ranked 2nd internationally. Andy Murray’s score increased to 1,290 points to a total of 5,460 points.
Meanwhile, US player Serena Williams, also ranked 1st internationally, took 1st place in the single games for women with a score of 6-3, 7-6. She won her game against Russian Maria Sharapova, who is ranked 2nd internationally.
Williams’s path to the championship was full of challenges, when she played against Begium’s Alison Van Uytvanck, but in the 2nd round she won against Russian Vera Zvonareva. In the 3rd round, she played for the first time against Ukraine’s Elena Svetolina, ranked 26th internationally. Williams won with scores of 6-4, 6-2, 6-0, moving to the 4th round against Spanish Garbiñe Muguruza, ranked 24th internationally. Williams won with scores of 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.
In the final rounds, Williams won the quarter-final against Slovekia’s Dominika Cibulková, ranked 11th internationally, with scores of 6-2, 6-2, before playing against US’s Madison Keys in the semi-finals and winning with a score of 7-6, 6-2.
This is the 6th title for Serena Williams in the Australian Open Tennis Championship, and it is the 19th in the Grand Slam Championships, from a total of 59 Grand Slams. Williams scored 2,000 points, boosting her rank internationally with a score of 9,776. On the other hand, Maria Sharapova scored 1,300 points to maintain her 2nd place internationally, with a total score of 8,210 points.
Meanwhile, in the double games between men, Italians Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini won against Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, with a score of 6-4, 6-4.
The Italian team won in the quarter-final against Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas and Spanish David Marrero with a score of 7-6, 7-6, while also winning in the semi-finals against Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer and Romanian Horia Tichao with scores of 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
In the double games for women, the US’s Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Czech’s Lucie Šafářová won against Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and China’s Zheng Jie with scores of 6-4, 7-6.
The winning team won against Russia’s players Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals with scores of 7-6, 4-6, and 6-2, before winning against Germany’s players Julia Görges and Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the semi-finals following the withdrawal of the German team.
The championship also included mixed double teams. Swiss Martina Hingis and Indian Leander Paes won against French Kristina Mladenovic and Canadian Daniel Nestor with scores of 6-4 and 6-3.
