2012 Australian Open

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.

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.

Below is a series of tables for each of the competitions showing the ranking points on offer for each event.

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.

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

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

Leander Paes / Radek Štěpánek defeated Bob Bryan / Mike Bryan, 7–6^(7–1), 6–2

Svetlana Kuznetsova / Vera Zvonareva defeated Sara Errani / Roberta Vinci, 5–7, 6–4, 6–3

Bethanie Mattek-Sands / Horia Tecău defeated Elena Vesnina / Leander Paes, 6–3, 5–7, [10–3]

Luke Saville defeated Filip Peliwo, 6–3, 5–7, 6–4

Taylor Townsend defeated Yulia Putintseva, 6–1, 3–6, 6–3

Liam Broady / Joshua Ward-Hibbert defeated Adam Pavlásek / Filip Veger, 6–3, 6–2

Gabrielle Andrews / Taylor Townsend defeated Irina Khromacheva / Danka Kovinić, 5–7, 7–5, [10–6]

Maikel Scheffers defeated Nicolas Peifer, 3–6, 7–6^(7–2), 6–0

Esther Vergeer defeated Aniek van Koot, 6–0, 6–0

Peter Norfolk defeated David Wagner, 4–6, 6–4, 6–2

Ronald Vink / Robin Ammerlaan defeated Stéphane Houdet / Nicolas Peifer, 6–2, 4–6, 6–1

Esther Vergeer / Sharon Walraven defeated Aniek van Koot / Marjolein Buis, 4–6, 6–2, 6–4

Andrew Lapthorne / Peter Norfolk defeated David Wagner / Noam Gershony, 6–4, 6–2

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.

Men's singles

Women's singles

Seeds and Rankings are as of 9 January 2012 and Points are as of 16 January 2012.

• Ashleigh Barty / Benjamin Mitchell
• Kimiko Date-Krumm / Kei Nishikori
• Casey Dellacqua / Matthew Ebden
• Jelena Dokić / Paul Hanley
• Jarmila Gajdošová / Bruno Soares
• Jelena Janković / Bernard Tomic
• Olivia Rogowska / Marinko Matosevic

The following players were accepted directly into the main tournament, but withdrew with injuries.

Below is a list of the sixteen seeds for the boys and girls singles and the eight qualifiers for each event.

The field consisted of top seven ranked players in the men's and women's singles, the three top three ranked players in the quad singles category and one wildcard was chosen for each draw.

• Australian Open official website