Australian Open Classic Matches Online

Australian Open Classic Matches Online

A tennis tournament featuring six different competitions, and part of the 2011 ATP World Tour, the 2011 WTA Tour, ITF Junior Tour and the NEC Tour, as tournaments for professional, junior and wheelchair players were held. The tournament took place at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia from 17 January to 30 January, it was the 99th edition of the Australian Open and the first Grand Slam event of 2011. The tournament was played on hard courts and was organized by the International Tennis Federation and Tennis Australia.

The 2011 Australian Open was the 99th edition of the Australian Open, held at Melbourne Park, in Melbourne, Victoria.

The tournament was an event run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Tennis Australia, that was part of the 2011 ATP World Tour and the 2011 WTA Tour calendars, under the Grand Slam category.

The tournament consisted of men's and women's singles and doubles draws as well as a mixed doubles event. There was also singles and doubles events for boys and girls, part of the Grade A category of tournaments of the junior tour. There were also events for wheelchair tennis players, they competed in two categories: Paraplegic players where men and women play in separate competitions and a category for Quadriplegics, shortened to Quads and is a mixed event. These competitions are part of the NEC tour, under the Grand Slam category. The tournament was played on Plexicushion Prestige AO hard courts, which were rated a medium-fast pace by the ITF. The tournament took place over twenty-five courts, including three showcourts: the Hisense Arena, the Margaret Court Arena and the Rod Laver Arena (the Hisense and Rod Laver Arenas have roofs which allow play to continue indoors should the roof be needed).

The 2011 Australian Open offered record prize money to both men and women of a total of A$25 million (US$24 million), up 3.8% on the total prize money from 2010. The winners of the singles titles took home A$2.2 million (US$2.1 million) with the finalists receiving A$1.1 million (US$1 million). To put it into perspective Kim Clijsters and Rafael Nadal both took home US$1.7 million for winning the 2010 US Open. Below is the list of prize money given to each player in the main draw of the professional competitions; all prize money is in Australian dollars (A$); doubles prize money is distributed per pair.

On 16 January, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijsters, Novak Djokovic, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Justine Henin, Ana Ivanovic, Victoria Azarenka, Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki and Queenslanders Samantha Stosur and Pat Rafter played a charity match at Rod Laver Arena to raise money for the flood efforts. Tickets to the event cost twenty dollars, and other events - such as an auction of shirts signed by the players - also took place. Queensland Energy Resources pledged to match the total amount of money raised. The event raised $1.8 million.

A full house of 15,000 people watched the charity fund-raiser Rally for Relief on the Rod Laver Arena, while another twelve hundred watched in the grounds bringing the attendance for the day to 16,220.

A total of 651,127 patrons attended the tournament throughout the two weeks, which was lower than the attendance in 2010, although daily records were set on several days. The middle Saturday witnessed a record breaking crowd. As 51,276 filled Melbourne Park, which was a record for the middle Saturday and the biggest crowd ever at the Australian Open for a day session. A further 25,845 attended the evening session which brought the total number of patrons for the day to 77,121 which was again record breaking as it was the largest amount of spectators to have attended on one day.

Rafael Nadal was the number one seed in the Men's Singles. He had an opportunity to complete all four Grand Slams at once, but lost to David Ferrer in the quarterfinals.

Caroline Wozniacki was the number one seed in the Women's Singles. She lost to eventual finalist Li Na in the semifinals.

Tennis Australia awarded eight wildcards for the men's and women's professional singles competitions. Former Australian Grand Slam champions, Pat Rafter and Todd Woodbridge helped to select the four discretionary wildcards in the men's draw. In an agreement with the United States Tennis Association, Tennis Australia gave one man and one woman from the United States a wildcard into the Australian Open. Tennis Australia also has a similar agreement with the French Tennis Federation. The Australian Open is promoted as "the Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific"; one male and one female player from this geographical area was awarded a wildcard. The final wildcard was awarded to the winner of the Australian Open wildcard playoff, a tournament between Australian players, who do not receive direct entry into the draw. Below is a list of players and teams who received wildcard entries into the main draw.