The Australian Open is a major tennis tournament held annually in the month of January in Melbourne, Australia, since 1905. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events of the year, including the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. It features men’s and women’s singles; men’s and women’s doubles and junior championships; as well as wheelchair, legends and exhibition events.  Since 1988 two types of hard court surfaces have been used at Melbourne Park; green Rebound Ace until 2007 and blue Plexicushion from 2008 on. The tournament has the record for the highest attendance at a Grand Slam event. It was also the first Grand Slam tournament to have indoor matches during wet weather or extreme heat with its three primary courts, the Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena and the Margaret Court that have retractable roofs.

Since 1987, the date of the Australian Open has not changed. However, some top players, including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, have said that the tournament is held too soon after the Christmas and New Year holidays, preventing players from reaching their best form. They have requested that the tournament be shifted to February. This change, however, could potentially impact attendees and therefore has not been made.

This year, 728,763 people attended the tournament and millions more watched it on TV, as it has been broadcasted globally since 1973. This year, the total prize money given away throughout the tournament was $50,000,000 Australian Dollars, or $38,074,997.28 US Dollars. The first place singles winner won $2,817,549.80 US Dollars, the doubles winner won $494,974.96, and the mixed doubles winner won $125,647.49.

This year’s Australian open began on January 18th with many players from all over the world fighting for the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup.  Andy Murray of Great Britain was the number one seed and the favorite to win the title for the men’s tournament.  As usual, Serena Williams claimed the number one seed for the women’s tournament.  The tournament turned out to be very exciting with many unexpected upsets and great matches.  

On the women’s side, Serena and Venus William took each other on in a fan-favorite sister versus sister match.  Serena, with the fastest serve in women’s tennis, took it to Venus in the finals and was able to raise the trophy once again.  She defeated Venus easily 6-4 in the first set and 6-4 in the second in a very quick match.  Unless there is a rising star next year, it does not look like anyone can take Serena down.  

This Australian Open saw some rising stars including the 19 year old Zverev twins who performed extremely well.  The 2017 Australian Open was one for the history books, where the number one and two seed both went out before the quarterfinals including defending champion Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.  This year’s tournament was one of the most unpredictable draw’s in history, with only two of the top ten seeds making their way into the quarters.  The semi-finals were made up of four well-known players, but they were not likely to make it this far in the tournament.  The seventeen seed Roger Federer took on the fourth seed Stan Wawrinka in a classic Suisse matchup in a thrilling five set match.  On the other side, ninth seed Rafael Nadal of Spain took on the fifteenth seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.  

The championship match highlighted Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as they went head to head in a Grand Slam for the 35th time.  Roger Federer has only won 12 of these matches as compared to the 23 of Rafael Nadal.  In this match, there were no kangaroos and wombats to run across the court, but the fans were still on the edge of their seats.   Federer took the first set 6-4 and Nadal came back to win the second by a score of 6-3.  Roger Federer went on to win the third set 6-1, lost the third 6-3, and finished off Nadal in the fifth set by winning five straight games to a 6-3 win.  In a match that lasted three hours and thirty-seven minutes Federer hit seventy-two winners to Nadal’s thirty-five.  Federer gained some momentum behind twenty aces to Nadal’s four and winning over 75% of the points when he hit his first serve in.  Overall, the 2017 Australian Open was an extremely exciting and demanding tournament, as Roger Federer was crowned the champion, winning his eighteenth Grand Slam.