MELBOURNE, February 2, 2020 (Press Release)
Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Sofia Kenin from the United States have been crowned the Australian Open singles champions for 2020, attendance records have been broken again, and more than $6 million has been raised by the global tennis community for bushfire relief.
A total of 812,174 fans attended the Australian Open over 14 days, smashing the previous attendance record of 796,435 from 2019.
Here are all the facts, stats and need-to-know details from Australian Open 2020.
Aces for Bushfire Relief
11,114 aces were served across the summer of tennis, which along with a range of charity initiatives, contributed to $6,096,453 raised for bushfire relief efforts (total calculated at 9:30pm Sunday 2 February).
On-court action
Novak Djokovic (SRB) defeated Dominic Thiem (AUT) 6-4 4-6 2-6 6-3 6-4 to win a record eighth Australian Open title, and was presented with the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup by 2005 AO champion Marat Safin.
21-year-old Sofia Kenin (USA) defeated Garbine Muguruza (ESP), 4-6 6-2 6-2, to win her first Grand Slam title. Australian Open 2000 champion Lindsay Davenport presented Kenin with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup
[11] Rajeev Ram (USA) and Joe Salisbury (GBR) defeated Australian wildcard pair Luke Saville and Max Purcell to win their first men’s doubles title, 6-4 6-2
[2] Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) / Timea Babos (HUN) defeated top seeds Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) / Barbora Strycova (CZE) to win their second consecutive Australian Open women’s doubles title, 6-2 6-1
[5] Barbora Krejcikova (CZE) and Nikola Mektic (CRO) defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) and Jamie Murray (GBR) 7-5 4-6 [10-1] to win the mixed doubles title
Top seed Harold Mayot (FRA) won the junior boys’ singles title, defeating countryman and fifth seed Arthur Cazaux (FRA) 6-4 6-1
The youngest player in the girls’ draw, 14-year-old [9] Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra defeated Weronika Baszak (POL), 7-5 2-6 2-6, to win the junior girls’ singles title
[5] Nicholas David Ionel (ROU) and Leandro Riedi (SUI) defeated [6] Mikolaj Lorens (POL) and Karlis Ozolins (LAT), 7-6(8) 5-7 [10-4], to win the junior boys’ doubles title
[4] Alexandra Eala (PHI) and Priska Madelyn Nugroho (INA) defeated Ziva Falkner (SLO) and Matilda Mutavdzic (GBR) 6-1 6-2 to claim the junior girls’ doubles title
Top seed Shingo Kuneida (JPN) won his tenth Australian Open crown and his 44th Grand Slam title, defeating Gordon Reid (GBR) 6-4 6-4 in the men’s wheelchair singles final
[2] Yui Kamiji (JPN) defeated Aniek Van Koot (NED), 6-2 6-2 to win the women’s wheelchair singles title
Yui Kamiji (JPN) / Jordanne Whiley (GBR) and [2] Gordon Reid (GBR) / Alfie Hewett (GBR) won the women’s and men’s wheelchair doubles titles respectively
Jaume Munar (ESP) sent down the fastest serve of the tournament at 232km/h
Liudmila Samsonova (RUS) posted the fastest serve in the women’s draw at 194km/h
A total of 573 players from 66 nations competed across all events, including juniors, qualifying, wheelies and legends
Nick Kyrgios (AUS) and Milos Raonic (CAN) served the most aces in the men’s draw with 100 each to their name
Australian Open 2020 finalist Garbine Muguruza (ESP) served the most aces of any female player with 42 aces in total
Seventeen Australians took part in the main draw singles, with nine players advancing to the second round, four into the third round, Nick Kyrgios advanced to the fourth round and Ash Barty advanced to the women’s semifinals.
Attendance
A record crowd of 812,174 fans shared the excitement of the Australian Open, smashing the previous attendance record of 796,435 from 2019
For the fourth time in the tournament’s history attendance in the first week surpassed 500,000 fans, with 550,645 attendees, smashing the previous record of 537,226 for Australian Open 2019
Five days (sessions combined) drew record crowds including the first Tuesday, first Friday, middle Saturday, middle Sunday and second Monday
The middle Saturday attracted a record attendance of 93,709
The Australia Day public holiday on Monday 27 January attracted 41,781 fans to the AO
The AO Live Stage featured headline music acts including: Ziggy Alberts, Bastille, Lime Cordiale, Thelma Plum, Cub Sport, The Veronicas, Grinspoon, Hot Dub Time Machine, Fatboy Slim, Billy Joel, Hayden James, Matt Corby, Broods, Kate Miller-Heidke and many more
Famous faces attending AO 2020 included: Rebel Wilson, Gladys Knight, Celeste Barber, Liane Moriarty, Eric Bana, Shane Warne, Adrian Grenier, Billy Idol, Matt Preston, Barry Humphries, Ricky Ponting, Leisel Jones, Terence and Jason Donovan, Cathy Freeman, Sean Paul, Kate Ceberano, Olympia Valance, Hamish Blake, Zoe Foster-Blake, Magda Szubanksi, Steve Smith, David Campbell, Rodger Corser, Samuel Johnson, Paul Kelly, David Reyne and Shane Delia, among many others.
The fifth annual edition of the AO Inspirational Series was the curtain raiser to the women’s semifinals. Special guest speakers included 2018 AO champion Caroline Wozniacki, Rebel Wilson and Liane Moriarty.
Tony Roche was honoured at the annual Legends Lunch and was joined by a host of tennis greats including Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Neale Fraser, Lleyton Hewitt, Margaret Court, Wendy Turnbull, Todd Woodbridge, Pat Rafter, Pat Cash, Wally Masur, Mark Woodforde, Frank Sedgman, John Fitzgerald, Liz Smylie, Nicole Bradtke, Marat Safin, Daniela Hantuchova and Casey Dellacqua. The event included a tribute to the late Peter McNamara.
Media
580 journalists and 134 photographers from 51 different countries covered AO 2020
More than 4,000 player interview requests were facilitated through the Media Centre
More than 100 off-court media opportunities with both current and former players and officials took place across the two weeks. Highlights included Serena Williams meeting CFA firefighters, Andreas Seppi trying his hand at pizza throwing, Dominic Thiem with Australian animals, Coco Gauff joining the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and eventual mixed doubles finalists Bethanie Mattek Sands and Jamie Murray enjoying a boat trip in the Botanic Gardens.
Game Insight Group (GIG)
From the Men’s and Women’s Singles Championships, the Game Insight Group analysed:
45,053 points of scoring data
240,145 shots of ball tracking data
1,096km of player movement data
Host broadcast
This is the sixth year Tennis Australia has run the Australian Open host broadcast, with this year’s tournament the 59th live broadcast managed by the TA team
Coverage of the event spanned a total of three full weeks – AO Qualifying, AO Rally for Relief, the AO Draw Show and the AO Main Draw
The 1,469 broadcast personnel included 555 internationals, 340 domestic and 52 news access from around the world
There were also 446 staff and freelance crews plus 28 talent and 48 contractors across the host broadcast and world feed
The continuous live coverage of all courts on-site, including AO Qualifying and Main Draw, added up to a total of 205 court days
Almost 900 matched were covered live across all draws, with the primary practice courts on-site also featuring live coverage
There was a total of 21 courts with live cameras at any one time across Melbourne Park
There was commentary across five courts including RLA, MCA, MA, 1573 and Court 3
The international commentary team featured world renowned and leading tennis experts including Mark Petchey John Fitzgerald, Sam Stosur, Daniela Hantuchova, Brad Stine, Colin Fleming, Louise Pleming, Bojana Bobusic, Roger Rasheed, Jacco Eltingh, Josh Eagle, Robbie Koenig, Nick Lester, Liz Smylie, Peter Donegan, Geoff Masters and more
The coverage featured electronic review on all 16 courts and all feeds, as well as 13 courts during Qualifying
A total of 154 cameras were used across the Host Broadcast – not counting more than 70 x 4D replay cameras installed in RLA or the many Hawkeye cameras right across the site: the cranes returned around the grounds and in MA, NetCams were located at RLA, MCA, MA, the 180 degree Eyecam built into the hydraulic umpires chair was back at RLA.
Spidercam was back in action at RLA and there were a 11 beauty cameras, three press room cameras and 21 player and behind-the-scenes cameras, as well as more than 100 court cameras
The graphics package included more virtual and augmented reality graphics on the top three arenas
This year also saw the continued integration of new statistics and analysis from the Game Insight Group as well as Universal Tennis Rating (UTR)
The RLA walk on once again featured 100 special LED digital banners and two dedicated LED screens.
Domestic broadcast
Channel Nine saw an average audience of 2.47m during Kyrgios vs Nadal, with a peak of 3.36 million people – the highest rating program of 2020!
To Day 13, viewership has increased an incredible 18% YOY – the fastest growth rate of any major sporting event in Australia in the last 12 months
Channel Nine’s cumulative reach for Days 1-13 of AO 2020 is 12.88 million viewers on TV
There have been more than 197 million streaming minutes on Nine’s online channels across days 1-13, nearly doubling 2019’s total before the end of AO 2020.
International broadcast
AO 2020 has been aired live in more than 215+ territories on more than 52 different TV channels, reaching more than 900 million homes daily
All main draw courts broadcast online via our broadcasters Nine, SKY New Zealand, iQIYI in China, Sony in India, Eurosport in Europe and ESPN in the Americas
All match courts have been streamed live and free to watch on ausopen.com in more than 75 territories including Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, with streaming available on the AO App in 25+ territories
In USA, viewership has increased by 4% over the first nine days, with increases likely as a result of Sofia Kenin’s first Grand Slam victory
Additional coverage in Europe provided by SSR/SRG (Switzerland), RTVS (Slovakia), Servus TV (Austria), BBC (UK – highlights) and Supertennis (Italy – highlights)
Live coverage of the AO has been available on selected airlines and cruise lines via Sport 24
All the key stories of each day, on and off the court, have been aired on thousands of TV channels and online portals around the world through footage provided by news agencies including 13 European agencies, Perform (Omnisport), SNTV, Reuters, and JSNA (Japan Sports News Association)
BBC Radio broadcast live every day to the UK audience, SiriusXM in the USA and domestic radio broadcaster SEN.
Digital walls
850 square metres of digital LED screens were used across all three stadiums at Melbourne Park – Rod Laver Arena (400), Margaret Court Arena (250) and Melbourne Arena (200)
More than 2300 LED screen modules used across the three arenas