The 2012 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 16 to 29 January 2012. It was the 100th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event 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 his title after he defeated Rafael Nadal in the longest Grand Slam final in history. The 2012 final passed the 2008 Wimbledon final for the record, finishing after 5 hours and 53 minutes of play. Kim Clijsters was the defending champion for the women's singles, but lost to Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals. Azarenka defeated Maria Sharapova for her first Grand Slam title; and over took Caroline Wozniacki as the number one ranked player on the WTA Tour. In the doubles Leander Paes and Radek Štěpánek won the title. Paes completed a career Grand Slam with the title while Štěpánek won his first Slam. On the women's side an all Russian duo of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva took the title. The mixed event was won by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Horia Tecău.
Tournament The 2012 Australian Open took place in January 2012 at Melbourne Park. The men's singles was staged for the 100th time. There have been 59 different previous winners and the 100th staging of the event was marked by a special coin and the 2012 Champion received a special medallion. The tournament also marked 50 years since Rod Laver won his first Grand Slam. For the first time Hawk-Eye ball tracking system was used on the Margaret Court Arena, while Ken Fletcher was inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame.
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.
Seniors points StageMen's singlesMen's doublesWomen's singlesWomen's doublesChampion2000Runner up12001400Semifinals720900Quarterfinals360500Round of 16180280Round of 3290160Round of 644501005Round of 12810–5–Qualifier2560Qualifying 3rd round1650Qualifying 2nd round840Qualifying 1st round02
Junior points StageBoys singlesBoys doublesGirls singlesGirls doublesChampion250180250180Runner up180120180120Semifinals1208012080Quarterfinals80508050Round of 1650305030Round of 3230–30–Qualifier who loses in first round25–25–Qualifying final round20–20 –
Wheelchair points StageMen's singlesMen's doublesWomen's singlesWomen's doublesQuad singlesQuad doublesChampion800Runner up500100Semifinals/3rd375100375100375–Quarterfinals/4th100–100–100–
Prize money The 2012 Australian Open was the richest Grand Slam tournament in history, with the singles champions pocketing 2.3 million dollars. All prize money is in Australian dollars (AUD); doubles prize money is distributed per pair.
Men's and women's singles Winners: $2,300,000 Runners-up: $1,150,000 Semi-finalists: $437,000 Quarter-finalists: $218,500 Fourth round: $109,250 Third round: $54,625 Second round: $33,300 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
Day-by-day summaries
Events
Seniors
Men's singles
Novak Djokovic was the defending champion and won in the final 5–7, 6–4, 6–2, 6–7(5–7), 7–5 against Rafael Nadal entering the season as reigning world number 1 for the first time of his career. It was the longest match in the history of the Australian Open, and in fact, the longest ever singles final in the Open Era in Grand Slam history; clocked at 5 hours and 53 minutes and ending after midnight with Nadal memorable saying after the match "good morning." It marked the fifth Grand Slam of Djokovic's career and his 3rd Australian Open. It also marked the first time that he had defended a Grand Slam title. After winning the 2012 Australian Open, Djokovic had an opportunity to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slams at the same time, after winning the previous two in 2011. Nadal became the first player to lose in the final of three consecutive Grand Slams in the Open Era.
Championship match result Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal, 5–7, 6–4, 6–2, 6–7(5–7), 7–5
Women's singles
Victoria Azarenka won her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first Belarusian player to win a Grand Slam in singles, by defeating Maria Sharapova in the final. She also became the 21st player to be ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association on 30 January 2012 as a result of this win. It was Azarenka's 2nd title of the year and 10th of her career.
Championship match result Victoria Azarenka defeated Maria Sharapova, 6–3, 6–0
Men's doubles
Leander Paes / Radek Štěpánek defeated Bob Bryan / Mike Bryan, 7–6(7–1), 6–2
Women's doubles
Svetlana Kuznetsova / Vera Zvonareva defeated Sara Errani / Roberta Vinci, 5–7, 6–4, 6–3
Mixed doubles
Bethanie Mattek-Sands / Horia Tecău defeated Elena Vesnina / Leander Paes, 6–3, 5–7, [10–3]
Juniors
Boys' singles
Luke Saville defeated Filip Peliwo, 6–3, 5–7, 6–4
Girls' singles
Taylor Townsend defeated Yulia Putintseva, 6–1, 3–6, 6–3
Boys' doubles
Liam Broady / Joshua Ward-Hibbert defeated Adam Pavlásek / Filip Veger, 6–3, 6–2
Girls' doubles
Gabrielle Andrews / Taylor Townsend defeated Irina Khromacheva / Danka Kovinić, 5–7, 7–5, [10–6]
Other events
Wheelchair men's singles
Maikel Scheffers defeated Nicolas Peifer, 3–6, 7–6(7–2), 6–0
Wheelchair women's singles
Esther Vergeer defeated Aniek van Koot, 6–0, 6–0
Wheelchair quad singles
Peter Norfolk defeated David Wagner, 4–6, 6–4, 6–2
Wheelchair men's doubles
Ronald Vink / Robin Ammerlaan defeated Stéphane Houdet / Nicolas Peifer, 6–2, 4–6, 6–1
Wheelchair women's doubles
Esther Vergeer / Sharon Walraven defeated Aniek van Koot / Marjolein Buis, 4–6, 6–2, 6–4
Wheelchair quad doubles
Andrew Lapthorne / Peter Norfolk defeated David Wagner / Noam Gershony, 6–4, 6–2
Broadcast
The host broadcaster of the event was the Seven Network which ran all day and night coverage on its primary channel and its digital channel 7Two from 11 am until the close of play around midnight Melbourne time. 2012 is the first year Seven has aired live primetime play across the entire country, switching coverage to 7Two for various live news and Today Tonight broadcasts in different time zones of Australia. Associated media partnership Yahoo!7 (co-owned by Seven and Yahoo!) saw more than 100 000 viewers check into live match coverage via the Fango mobile app, with check-ins peaking during the Hewitt vs. Djokovic match in the Open's fourth round.
The event was also shown in Australia on Fox Sports which broadcast secondary matches live.
Singles players Men's singles Champion Runner-up Novak Djokovic Rafael Nadal Semifinals out Andy Murray Roger Federer Quarterfinals out David Ferrer Kei Nishikori Juan Martín del Potro Tomáš Berdych 4th round out Lleyton Hewitt (WC) Richard Gasquet Mikhail Kukushkin Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Philipp Kohlschreiber Bernard Tomic Nicolás Almagro Feliciano López 3rd round out Nicolas Mahut Milos Raonic Janko Tipsarević Juan Ignacio Chela Michaël Llodra Gaël Monfils Julien Benneteau Fred Gil Alejandro Falla Lu Yen-hsun Alexandr Dolgopolov Ivo Karlović Kevin Anderson Stanislas Wawrinka John Isner Lukáš Lacko (Q) 2nd round out Santiago Giraldo Tatsuma Ito (WC) Philipp Petzschner Andy Roddick James Duckworth (WC) Andrey Golubev (Q) Pablo Andújar Ryan Sweeting Édouard Roger-Vasselin Alex Bogomolov Jr. Viktor Troicki Thomaz Bellucci Gilles Simon Matthew Ebden Marcel Granollers Ricardo Mello Mardy Fish Pere Riba Florent Serra (Q) Blaž Kavčič Tobias Kamke Sam Querrey Carlos Berlocq Andreas Beck Olivier Rochus Sergiy Stakhovsky Marcos Baghdatis Grigor Dimitrov David Nalbandian Flavio Cipolla Donald Young Tommy Haas (PR) 1st round out Paolo Lorenzi Matteo Viola (Q) Potito Starace Radek Štěpánek Filippo Volandri Lukáš Rosol Cedrik-Marcel Stebe Robin Haase Dmitry Tursunov Jürgen Zopp (Q) Mikhail Youzhny Andreas Seppi Michael Russell Igor Kunitsyn Matthias Bachinger Rui Machado Ryan Harrison Xavier Malisse Ernests Gulbis Daniel Gimeno Traver Juan Carlos Ferrero Guillermo García López Dudi Sela Marinko Matosevic (WC) Danai Udomchoke (Q) Karol Beck João Souza Stéphane Robert Jesse Levine (WC) Ivan Dodig Roberto Bautista Agut (Q) Denis Istomin Gilles Müller Fabio Fognini Albert Montañés Juan Mónaco Rik de Voest (LL) Steve Darcis James Ward (Q) Adrian Mannarino Greg Jones (WC) Victor Hănescu Kenny de Schepper (WC) Fernando Verdasco Jürgen Melzer Jesse Huta Galung (Q) Éric Prodon Alexander Kudryavtsev (Q) Albert Ramos Viñolas Björn Phau (Q) Illya Marchenko (Q) Frederik Nielsen (Q) Benoît Paire Benjamin Becker (PR) Jérémy Chardy Łukasz Kubot Benjamin Mitchell (WC) Jarkko Nieminen Nikolay Davydenko Leonardo Mayer Ivan Ljubičić Peter Gojowczyk (Q) Denis Kudla (Q) Alex Kuznetsov (Q)
Women's singles Champion Runner-up Victoria Azarenka Maria Sharapova Semifinals out Kim Clijsters Petra Kvitová Quarterfinals out Caroline Wozniacki Agnieszka Radwańska Ekaterina Makarova Sara Errani 4th round out Jelena Janković Li Na Iveta Benešová Julia Görges Serena Williams Sabine Lisicki Zheng Jie Ana Ivanovic 3rd round out Monica Niculescu Christina McHale Daniela Hantuchová Anabel Medina Garrigues Mona Barthel Nina Bratchikova (Q) Romina Oprandi Galina Voskoboeva Vera Zvonareva Gréta Arn Svetlana Kuznetsova Angelique Kerber Sorana Cîrstea Marion Bartoli Vania King Maria Kirilenko 2nd round out Anna Tatishvili Pauline Parmentier Marina Erakovic Chang Kai-chen (Q) Stéphanie Foretz Gacon Lesia Tsurenko Olga Govortsova Olivia Rogowska (WC) Casey Dellacqua (WC) Petra Cetkovská Alberta Brianti Peng Shuai Francesca Schiavone Eleni Daniilidou Tsvetana Pironkova Paula Ormaechea (Q) Lucie Hradecká Kaia Kanepi Dominika Cibulková Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová Shahar Pe'er Sloane Stephens Stéphanie Dubois Jamie Hampton (Q) Urszula Radwańska Nadia Petrova Roberta Vinci Jelena Dokić Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Michaëlla Krajicek Aleksandra Wozniak Carla Suárez Navarro 1st round out Anastasia Rodionova Ashleigh Barty (WC) Alla Kudryavtseva Alizé Cornet Lucie Šafářová Irena Pavlovic (Q) Petra Martić Laura Robson (Q) Maria João Köhler (Q) Elena Baltacha Arantxa Rus Varvara Lepchenko (Q) Eva Birnerová Patricia Mayr-Achleitner Sofia Arvidsson Ksenia Pervak Heather Watson Bojana Jovanovski Anne Keothavong Ayumi Morita Flavia Pennetta Irina Falconi Mathilde Johansson Aravane Rezaï (WC) Laura Pous Tió Anastasiya Yakimova Kimiko Date-Krumm Polona Hercog Yanina Wickmayer Sania Mirza Simona Halep Bethanie Mattek-Sands Alexandra Dulgheru Evgeniya Rodina Tamarine Tanasugarn Johanna Larsson Magdaléna Rybáriková Rebecca Marino Iryna Brémond Tamira Paszek Stefanie Vögele (Q) Isabella Holland (WC) Sílvia Soler-Espinosa Chanelle Scheepers Bojana Bobusic (WC) Elena Vesnina Mandy Minella Gisela Dulko Samantha Stosur Alison Riske (Q) Valeria Savinykh (Q) Andrea Hlaváčková Alexandra Cadanțu Madison Keys (WC) Anna Chakvetadze (PR) Virginie Razzano Klára Zakopalová Kateryna Bondarenko Kristina Barrois Lourdes Domínguez Lino Jarmila Gajdošová Zhang Shuai (WC) Irina-Camelia Begu Vera Dushevina
Singles seeds
Seeds and Rankings are as of 9 January 2012 and Points are as of 16 January 2012.
Men's singles