2024_Australian_Open
2024 Australian Open
Tennis championships
The 2024 Australian Open was a Grand Slam level tennis tournament held at Melbourne Park, from 14 to 28 January 2024.[1] It was the 112th edition of the Australian Open, the 56th in the Open Era, and the first major of the year. The tournament consists of events for professional players in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Junior and wheelchair players competed in singles and doubles tournaments. The tournament's main sponsor is Kia.[2]
Novak Djokovic was the defending men's singles champion.[3] He was defeated in the semifinals by Jannik Sinner,[4] who went on to beat Daniil Medvedev in a five-set final to win his first major title.[5] Aryna Sabalenka successfully defended the women's singles title as she claimed her second major singles title, defeating Zheng Qinwen without losing a set during the tournament.[6][7]
In the tournament's 119-year history, this was the first Australian Open Tennis Championships to be held on an opening Sunday.[8]
The tournament featured the following changes from previous tournaments:[9]
- First-round matches took place over three days instead of two.
- The daytime sessions on the central courts, Rod Laver Arena and Margaret Court Arena, featured a maximum of two matches instead of three to avoid matches lasting into the early hours of the morning, such as the match between Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis in 2023, which ended at 4:05 am local time.[10] The John Cain Arena schedule remains the same. However, the success of this policy change is questionable, since some matches at this edition of the tournament still finished after midnight, including one between Daniil Medvedev and Emil Ruusuvuori which finished at 3:40 am local time.[11]
- The number of game sessions for the event increased from 47 to 52 with the extra day of competition.
The tournament attracted an attendance of 1,020,763 (1,110,657 including pre-tournament qualifiers), making this the highest attended Australian Open ever, as well as the first Grand Slam to attract over a million spectators in a single tournament.[12][13]
