MELBOURNE, February 22, 2020 (Australian Open Press Release)
A tournament like no other, played in front of 130,374 fans, has seen Novak Djokovic (SRB) and Naomi Osaka (JPN) crowned the Australian Open singles champions for 2021.
AO 2021 champions
[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) claimed a record ninth Australian Open men’s title and his 18th Grand Slam defeating [4] Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 7-5 6-2 6-2
[3] Naomi Osaka (JPN) defeated [22] Jennifer Brady (USA) 6-4 6-3 to win her fourth Grand Slam title and second Australian Open women’s singles championship
[2] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) / Elise Mertens (BEL) defeated [3] Barbora Krejcikova (CZE) / Katerina Siniakova (CZE) 6-2 6-3 to win their first Australian Open women’s doubles title
[9] Ivan Dodig (CRO) / Filip Polasek (SVK) claimed their first Grand Slam title defeating [5] Rajeev Ram (USA) / Joe Salisbury (GBR)
[6] Rajeev Ram (USA) / Barbora Krejcikova (CZE) defeated [WC] Matt Ebden / Sam Stosur (AUS) 6-1 6-4 to claim the pair’s second Australian Open mixed doubles title in two years
Joachim Gerard (BEL) won his first Grand Slam title, defeating Alfie Hewett (GBR) 6-0 4-6 6-4 in the men’s wheelchair singles final
[1] Diede de Groot (NED) defeated [2] Yui Kamiji (JPN) 6-3 6-7(4) [10-4] to win the women’s wheelchair singles title and claim her third Australian Open trophy
[1] Diede de Groot (NED) / Aniek van Koot (NED) and [1] Gordon Reid (GBR) / Alfie Hewett (GBR) won the women’s and men’s wheelchair doubles titles respectively
[1] Dylan Alcott (AUS) defeated Sam Schroder (NED) 6-1 6-0 to claim his seventh consecutive Australia Open quad singles title
Australians [1] Dylan Alcott and Heath Davidson won their fourth straight Australian Open quad doubles title.
AO 2021 competitors
A total of 494 players from 62 nations competed across all events, including qualifying, singles, doubles and wheelchair
The nation with the most competitors was the USA with 47 players
46 Australians took part in the Australian Open, Dylan Alcott and Heath Davidson both claiming titles in the quad division
23 Aussies took part in main draw singles with 12 players advancing to the second round, three into the third round including Ash Barty who advanced to the women’s quarterfinals
117 players from eight Asia-Pacific nations competed across all events, including qualifying, singles, doubles and wheelchair.
On-court action
The Tennis Australia Game Insights Group analysed:
· 233,335 shots of ball tracking data
· 43,651 points of scoring data
· 6948 games
· 733 sets of tennis
Novak Djokovic (SRB) served the most aces in the men’s draw with 103 to his name
Australian Open 2021 champion Naomi Osaka (JPN) served the most aces of any female player with 50 aces in total
Gael Monfils (FRA) and Reilly Opelka (USA) both sent down the fastest serve of the tournament at 232km/h
Serena Williams (USA) set a new AO Women’s Record for the fastest serve of 203km/h in the third set of her second round match against Nina Stojanovic (SRB)
Canada’s Denis Shapovalov broke the AO Men’s Record for fastest backhand at 163.2km/h
Three AO Physical Records were broken during the tournament, Yulia Putintseva (KAZ) expended the most energy with 133KJ and covered the largest distance covered of 0.11km during a single point while Elina Svitolina (UKR) set the highest hitting load of 22 for a point
147 players broke their AO shot speed record including Novak Djokovic (SRB) who hit his fastest serve 209.6 km/h and forehand 164.1 km/h, Daniil Medvedev (RUS) hit his fastest return at 151.0 km/h, forehand 162.5 km/h and backhand 146.3 km/h, Naomi Osaka (JPN) hit her fastest serve at 200.8 km/h while Jennifer Brady (USA) hit her fastest serve 191.1 km/h and forehand 150.1 km/h. Aussie Ash Barty hit her fastest serve at 187.9 km/h and forehand at 148.9 km/h
252 AO Personal Physical Records were set at AO 2021 including 76 at point level, 66 at game level, 56 at set level and 54 at match level
Aussie Nick Kyrgios set a new game level player record with 440KJ of total work, covering 0.32km in distance and 17 high intensity changes
Naomi Osaka (JPN) set a new set level player record with 26 high intensity changes
Jennifer Brady (USA) set new game level player record for 366KJ of total work, 0.35km of total distance travelled and a hitting load of 125.
Non-live content
The AO Media team produced more than 355 content pieces which were downloaded by broadcasters 6370 times up 63% on 2020
The AO Media team launched the AO Director’s Chair which uses 360° immersive technology via the Oculus Quest headset and the choice of 12 camera angles inside Rod Laver Arena
There were 37,204,483 views on AO YouTube and 87,487,753 minutes watched
Live broadcast programming
There was a total of 21 courts with live cameras across Melbourne Park including 16 match courts and five practice courts
There was commentary on five courts: Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena, John Cain Arena, 1573 Arena and Court 3
The international commentary team featured world renowned and leading tennis experts including Mark Petchey, John Fitzgerald, Sam Stosur, Mark Philippoussis, Brad Stine, Colin Fleming, Alison Mitchell, Louise Pleming, Wally Masur, Roger Rasheed, Jill Craybas, Nicole Pratt, Josh Eagle, Robbie Koenig, Nicole Bradtke, Liz Smylie, Geoff Masters and Stephanie Brantz
Broadcast innovations included Augmented Reality graphics and integrated statistics from the Game Insight Group and two other data feeds
More than 150 cameras around the site gave fans more access than ever before
FlyCam was back covering almost 400 metres across the venue
The RLA walk on this year featured 104 special LED digital banners and two dedicated LED screens
Augmented crowd FX and specially designed seat covers transformed the stadiums and coverage during the five-day lockdown
The World Feed live program was fully hosted for the first time from a dedicated studio inside Rod Laver Arena featuring touchscreen analytics.
Domestic broadcast
Nine Network has dominated the ratings for the last fortnight attracting more than 10.9 million viewers despite the move to February
Nick Kyrgios’ five-set loss to Austrian Dominic Thiem was the highest watched non-news program of 2021 with a national peak of 1.8 million and average audience of 1.27 million
More than 57.5 million hours have been viewed across all sessions over the first 13 days
Cumulatively more than 224.3 million minutes have been streamed online via 9now up 21% on 2020. 162.5 million of these have been simulcast up 18%.
International broadcast
AO 2021 aired live in more than 210 territories on 50+ TV channels, reaching more than 900 million homes daily
All 16 match courts streamed online in more than 115 territories via Nine, iQIYI in China, Sony in India, Eurosport in Europe and ESPN in the Americas
Chinese, national, free to air broadcaster CCTV increased coverage hours over 85% in week one reaching over 400 million households daily
Across its top 11 markets in Europe, Eurosport’s linear coverage saw an uplift in average audience numbers with Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 registering a 41% and 28% increase respectively in the first week
Additional coverage in Europe provided by MATCH TV (Russia), SSR/SRG (Switzerland), Servus TV (Austria), and BBC (UK – highlights)
In the US, the most viewed telecast on ESPN was Serena Williams vs Naomi Osaka peaked at 1.6 million
The World Feed streamed live on ausopen.com in more than 50 territories including Argentina, Brazil and Mexico
All the key stories of each day, on-and-off the court, have aired on thousands of TV channels and online portals around the world via international news agencies including SNTV, Thomson Reuters, and JSNA (Japan Sports News Association)
On radio, live coverage is provided every day by BBC Radio to the UK audience, Sirius XM in the USA, domestic radio broadcaster SEN, and selected matches on NRK Radio in Norway.
Reaching global audiences through content
Top 5 countries reached through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were Australia, United States, India, United Kingdom and Japan
There have been 88.8 million impressions on Instagram, 150 million on Twitter and 65.9 million on Facebook
Top Instagram post: Tsitsipas beats Rafa Nadal – 780k impressions
Top Tweet: Rafa Nadal post match – 3.2m impressions
Top Facebook post: Naomi Osaka | Australian Open Day 13 Final On-Court Interview… – 964k reach
More than 300 frames have been published as part of the AO Instagram Stories contributing to 25% of the overall impressions on the channel.
Deeper global engagement of tennis fans
The ausopen.com website delivered over 18 million sessions
The website was most popular in Australia, United States, Canada, India and United Kingdom
There were more than 6 million video views on the AO app and website