Stan Wawrinka was the defending champion in men's singles but lost to four-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. Reigning women's champion Li Na did not defend her title, as she retired from professional tennis in September, 2014.[1]Novak Djokovic won an Open Era record fifth men's singles crown by defeating Andy Murray in the final, and this was the third time they met each other in the final.[2]Serena Williams won an Open Era record six women's singles championships by defeating Maria Sharapova in the final, and this was the second time they met each other in the final.[3]
The 2015 Australian Open was the 103rd edition of the tournament and was held at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The tournament was run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and was part of the 2015 ATP World Tour and the 2015 WTA Tour calendars under the Grand Slam category. The tournament consisted of both men's and women's singles and doubles draws as well as a mixed doubles event. There were singles and doubles events for both boys and girls (players under 18), which was part of the Grade A category of tournaments, and also singles, doubles and quad events for men's and women's wheelchair tennis players as part of the NEC tour under the Grand Slam category.
The tournament was played on hard courts and took place over a series of 16 courts with Plexicushion surface, including the three main showcourts – Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena and Margaret Court Arena.[7] The latter was unveiled with a capacity increase from 6,000 to 7,500 and also as the third Melbourne Park venue with fully operational retractable roof to make the Australian Open the first Grand Slam tournament with three such tennis stadiums.[8] Partly due to the new roof, the 2015 event set an all-time attendance record of 703,899 fans. The cooler than normal temperatures may also have played a role.[9]
Broadcast
The tournament was broadcast in more than 200 countries around the world. In Australia, all matches were broadcast live by the Seven Network on the network's primary channel under the banner Seven Sport. In the Asia/Pacific region, the tournament was covered by CCTV, iQiyi, SMG (China), Fiji One (Fiji), Sony SIX (India), Wowow, NHK (Japan), Sky TV (New Zealand) and Fox Sports Asia, in Europe by Eurosport, NOS (Netherlands), SRG SSR (Switzerland) and BBC (United Kingdom), in the Middle East by beIN Sports, in Africa by SuperSport, while in the Americas coverage was provided by ESPN.[10]
In 2015, live coverage emanated from all sixteen courts. Qualifying tournaments, draw ceremony and Kids' Day were shown on official tournament website, AusOpen.com.[11]
Point and prize money distribution
Point distribution
Below is a series of tables for each of the competitions showing the ranking points on offer for each event.
Senior points
Event
W
F
SF
QF
Round of 16
Round of 32
Round of 64
Round of 128
Q
Q3
Q2
Q1
Men's singles
2000
1200
720
360
180
90
45
10
25
16
8
0
Men's doubles
0
—
—
—
—
—
Women's singles
1300
780
430
240
130
70
10
40
30
20
2
Women's doubles
10
—
—
—
—
—
Wheelchair points
Event
W
F
SF/3rd
QF/4th
Singles
800
500
375
100
Doubles
800
500
100
—
Quad singles
800
500
100
—
Quad doubles
800
100
—
—
Junior points
Event
W
F
SF
QF
Round of 16
Round of 32
Q
Q3
Boys' singles
375
270
180
120
75
30
25
20
Girls' singles
Boys' doubles
270
180
120
75
45
—
—
—
Girls' doubles
—
—
—
Prize money
The Australian Open total prize money for 2015 was increased to A$40,000,000, with men's and women's singles champions to receive a tournament-record 3.1 million Australian dollars reward.[12] Out of total prize money, A$28,796,000 was paid for players competing in singles main draw, further A$1,344,000 for players, who lost in qualifying, A$5,165,200 – for doubles players, A$480,000 for mixed doubles players and A$605,330 for competitors in other events, while A$3,609,470 was used to cover other fees, including players' per diem and trophies.[13]
Event
W
F
SF
QF
Round of 16
Round of 32
Round of 64
Round of 1281
Q3
Q2
Q1
Singles
A$3,100,000
A$1,550,000
A$650,000
A$340,000
A$175,000
A$97,500
A$60,000
A$34,500
A$16,000
A$8,000
A$4,000
Doubles*
A$575,000
A$285,000
A$142,500
A$71,000
A$39,000
A$23,000
A$14,800
—
—
—
—
Mixed doubles*
A$142,500
A$71,500
A$35,600
A$16,300
A$8,200
A$4,000
—
—
—
—
—
1Qualifiers prize money is also the Round of 128 prize money. *per team
This was the third time these two players met in the final. The other two times were in 2011 and 2013, when Djokovic won. This time would prove no different with Djokovic winning his fifth title, an Open Era record, to go along with his titles in 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013.[2] This victory was Djokovic's eighth grand slam title, tying him in the Open Era with Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi. This was Murray's fourth loss in the final of the Australian Open, three of them to Djokovic and one to Roger Federer in 2010. This marks the first time since Björn Borg at the US Open that someone has lost all four of his final appearances at a particular grand slam event.
This marked the second time these two players met in the final. The other time was in 2007, which Williams won. This time would be exactly the same, with Williams winning her sixth title (an Open Era record), to go along with wins in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010.[3] This was her nineteenth career grand slam singles title, behind only Steffi Graf's twenty-two titles in the Open Era of tennis. This was Sharapova's third loss in the final; the other two losses were in 2012 to Victoria Azarenka and to Williams in 2007. Sharapova won the title in 2008.
This was the first women's doubles title for the team of Mattek-Sands and Šafářová at the event and in their respective careers.[5] One of their finalist opponents, Zheng Jie won the title in 2006 with Yan Zi.
This was a match of past mixed doubles champions at the event, which Hingis won with Mahesh Bhupathi in 2006, while her partner Paes won titles in 2003 with Martina Navratilova and in 2010 with Cara Black.[6] Their finalist opponents' won the event last year, but Nestor won titles in 2007 with Elena Likhovtseva and 2011 with Katarina Srebotnik. This was Hingis' second mixed doubles title for her career, and for Paes' it is his seventh mixed doubles grand slam crown for his career.
Seedings are based on rankings as of 12 January 2015. Rankings and points before are as of 19 January 2015.
Points defending includes results from both the 2014 Australian Open and tournaments from the week of 27 January 2014 (Davis Cup for the men, and Paris and Pattaya for the women).
Further four wildcards were awarded at Asia-Pacific Australian Open Wildcard Playoff into the men's and women's singles and doubles main draw events,[18] while Tennis Australia organized its own playoff competitions, where Jordan Thompson, Daria Gavrilova and Sam Thompson & Masa Jovanovic mixed doubles team received entries to Australian Open.[19]
Remaining wildcard places were filled by Australian internal selection.