Tournament Guide: Australian Open

When it comes to tournament resurrections, the Australian Open remains the shining success story of the last 30 years. After a couple of decades in the wilderness, when it was ignored by virtually every male player of note, the Aussie Open reclaimed its full Slam status when it moved into Melbourne Park, and changed from grass courts to hard, in 1988. Since then, the tournament has become perhaps the most popular of the majors with the players, and one of the most entertaining for spectators; some of the best matches of the last 20 years have been played on its medium-paced hard courts. On the flip side, “The Happy Slam” has also become known for its antipodal summer heat, which regularly exceeds 100 degrees.

In the years before the current ATP Golden Era, the Australian Open had a reputation for producing surprise winners; they included Thomas Johansson, Petr Korda and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. That trend ended in 2004, when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic took over and split nine of the next 10 titles between them.

Federer has become known, among other things, as the master of the tweener, but he didn’t always have the shot down pat. In fact, 10 years ago in Melbourne, he missed the most important between-the-legs shot of his career. After reaching match point in the fourth set of a terrific semifinal against Marat Safin, Federer ranged back to the baseline and tried to end it in the most spectacular way possible. Instead, his tweener ended up in the net, and Safin came back to send the match to a fifth set. Federer’s loss was tennis’ gain, as the two players dueled in a classic, which Safin won 9–7. The Russian went on to win the title, but Federer went on to win the year as a whole. It was one of just four losses, against 81 wins, that he suffered in 2005.

The dark years weren’t quite as dark on the women’s side as they were on the men’s. Starting in the early 1980s, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert made the trip Down Under to play on the sloping grass at the creaky old Kooyong Club in Melbourne; not surprisingly, they split five straight titles between them.

Greatness has continued to reign at the event over the last decade: Serena Williams has won it five times, and Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova once each. But the women’s event has begun to offer up its share of surprises and breakthroughs. Victoria Azarenka won her first major there in 2012. Ana Ivanovic and Li Na reached their first Slam finals in Australia before going on to win their first majors at Roland Garros. And Dominika Cibulkova came from outside the Top 10 to reach the final in 2014. Now that Li, the defending champion, is retired, there will be a scramble to fill her shoes. Serena hasn’t won it since 2010, so you know she’ll want to put an end to that streak. The WTA’s Slam season should begin with a shootout.

You think Rafael Nadal has dominated the French Open? He still has some work to do before he matches what Margaret Court did at the Australian Open. From 1960 to 1973, the Perth native and the most underrated great player in tennis history won the tournament an astounding 11 times.

None of those wins were as significant as the one she put together in 1970, in Sydney. That title run 35 years ago, in which she lost no more than three games in any set (including a 6–3, 6–1 quarterfinal dismissal of Evonne Goolagong), launched Court to the tennis version of the Holy Grail, a calendar-year Grand Slam. It was a feat that wouldn’t be matched on the women’s side until Steffi Graf did it 18 years later.