Understanding Australian Open 2021 (Important Dates and Facts)
The 2021 tennis season is set to start and the first Grand Slam tournament, Australian Open (AO), in Melbourne, Australia is already scheduled for February for the 1st time in the tournament’s history. It will be the 109th in tennis history and the 53rd in the Open Era.
It was originally scheduled for 18–31 January 2021, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let’s have a look at some important dates and facts!
Players and their teams will arrive in Australia from 15 January and undertake a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
For the first time, the Australian Open qualifying will be held outside Australia.
Men qualifying will be played in Doha, Qatar and women qualifying will be played in Dubai, UAE from 10-13 January.
The Australian Open 2021 will take place at Melbourne Park, from 8–21 February 2021.
For professional players, the tournament will consist of events in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
The AO Junior Championships has been postponed until later in the year.
Competitors will fight for more than $80 million in prize money. In addition, the AO total prize pool remaining at the 2020 level of $71.5 million.
Tennis players who will exit in the first round of the AO will take home $100,000.
Australian Open final 2021 matches are scheduled on the following days:
Women’s Singles Final Match, Men’s Doubles Final Match – Saturday, February 20, 2021
Mixed Doubles Final, Men’s Singles Final – Sunday, February 21, 2021
AO 2021 tickets are on sale to the general public starting from Wednesday 23 December, 2020 via ticketmaster.com.au
Novak Djokovic is the defending champion in Men’s Singles and Sofia Kenin in the Women’s Singles. The runner up in Men’s Singles was Dominic Thiem and Women’s Singles, Garbiñe Muguruza.
The first Australian Open was held in 1905 on a grass court in Melbourne, Australia. When it relocated to the new Melbourne Park complex, it moved to hard courts as well.
The men’s singles trophy is named after Norman Brookes, a three-time Grand Slam and six-time Davis Cup champion.
The women’s singles trophy is named after Daphne Akhurst, a five-time Australian Championships winner.
Djokovic has won the Australian Open for eight times, winning the first one in 2008 and playing 8 AO finals in total. Surprisingly, hard courts king Rafael Nadal won only 1 Australian Open Cup. In total, Rafael Nadal played 5 AO finals.
Coming to women, Margaret Court won the AO for eleven times, with her first coming before the Open Era in 1960. In the Open Era, Serena Williams won most titles – seven AO trophies.
The Australian Open is the only mega tennis tournament that has been played in different countries. In 1906 and 1912, the tournament was held in New Zealand.
Because of the geographical location, Australian Open did not have foreign players until 1946. The first foreign players to play in AO were from the USA who came to Australia by plane.
| Team | |
| Juan Sebastián Cabal | Robert Farah |
| Marcel Granollers | Horacio Zeballos |
| Nikola Mektić | Mate Pavić |
| Wesley Koolhof | Łukasz Kubot |
| Rajeev Ram | Joe Salisbury |
| Pierre-Hugues Herbert | Nicolas Mahut |
| Jamie Murray | Bruno Soares |
| Marcelo Melo | Horia Tecău |
| Ivan Dodig | Filip Polášek |
| Kevin Krawietz | Andreas Mies |
| John Peers | Michael Venus |
| Henri Kontinen | Édouard Roger-Vasselin |
| Jérémy Chardy | Fabrice Martin |
| Robin Haase | Oliver Marach |
| Raven Klaasen | Ben McLachlan |
| Sander Gillé | Joran Vliegen |
| Team | |
| Hsieh Su-wei | Barbora Strýcová |
| Tímea Babos | Kristina Mladenovic |
| Elise Mertens | Aryna Sabalenka |
| Barbora Krejčíková | Kateřina Siniaková |
| Nicole Melichar | Demi Schuurs |
| Gabriela Dabrowski | Bethanie Mattek-Sands |
| Chan Hao-ching | Latisha Chan |
| Shuko Aoyama | Ena Shibahara |
| Duan Yingying | Zheng Saisai |
| Alexa Guarachi | Desirae Krawczyk |
| Samantha Stosur | Zhang Shuai |
| Xu Yifan | Yang Zhaoxuan |
| Lyudmyla Kichenok | Jeļena Ostapenko |
| Kirsten Flipkens | Andreja Klepač |
| Hayley Carter | Luisa Stefani |
| Anna Blinkova | Veronika Kudermetova |