After another exciting grand slam tennis season in 2023, the ATP tour was ready to open again with the Australian Open.  This year, the tournament was held from Jan. 14 to Jan. 28 and did not disappoint.  The top mens and womens players from all around the world came to Melbourne to battle it out in the seven-round tournament.

The first five rounds of the women’s singles tournament were filled with exciting matches that eventually left four women to play semi-final matches.  One of these four was Coco Gauff, an American player who won the most recent grand slam final, the US Open.  She faced off against Aryna Sabalenka, the defending champion of last year’s Australian Open.  

On the other side of the bracket, Chinese player Qinwen Zheng matched up Ukrainian player Dayana Yastremska.  These matches were both highly anticipated and considered pretty even matchups.  In the end, however, Zheng and Sabalenka moved on to the championship match.  

Sabalenka was heavily favored in this match as she was the two seed while Zheng was the twelve seed in the tournament.  From the moment the match started, Sabalenka was in control, moving Zheng around the court and winning the majority of points, especially the ones where she served.  She went on to win the match 6-3, 6-2, defending her title.

“I watched both of the semifinal matches and the final.  The amount of power Sabalenka had in her shots was unreal and I knew there was no way anyone else could beat her.  She is in her prime right now and it is amazing to see her win so many tournaments over the past few years,” said junior Leo Bosse.

On the men’s side of the bracket, defending champion Novak Djokovic was looking to extend his record of all-time grand slams and win his 25th.  He came into the tournament as the number one seed after he won three grand slams in 2023.

“As a Nadal fan, it is hard to watch Novak Djokovic continue to dominate the sport and one-up each of the records that Nadal has set.  He keeps breaking away and making an even greater case for why he is the greatest of all time.  I would still argue that the best version of Nadal would be much better than the best version of Djokovic. Nadal has been dealing with many injuries lately while Djokovic is playing some of his best tennis.  When Nadal is not playing, however, it allows me to scout young talent such as Ben Shelton or Casper Ruud,” said junior Justin Park.

Similar to the womens side, the early rounds of the mens tournament were for the most part dominated by the higher seeds.  An exciting quarterfinal round left Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner, and Alexander Zverev to fight for the championship.  Each of these players was ranked in the top 6.  The matchups were Djokovic against Sinner and Medvedev against Zverev.  Sinner had been on a streak from his last few matches and carried it into the semifinal to defeat the defending champion, Djokovic.  The other match went five sets and ended with Medvedev edging out a victory with a 6-3 final set. 

In the championship, one-time grand slam winner Medvedev was slightly favored over the young Italian Jannik Sinner who was hoping to win his first grand slam.  The highly-anticipated match started with the first two sets being dominated by Medvedev.  

Then, in the third set, Jannik Sinner refused to give up and ended up staying alive to force a fourth set.  He then won the fourth set easily to set up a fifth set to decide the championship.  Carrying his momentum from the last two sets, Sinner was able to win the set 6-3 and achieve his goal of winning a grand slam.  He became the first Italian male to win a Grand Slam singles title since 1976.  

This meant Medvedev had become the only male in the Open Era to lose a 2-0 set lead twice in a major final.  Additionally, he had now appeared in and lost three out of the last four Australian Open Finals. 

“I am very happy for Sinner.  However, I hoped that he would be able to play against Alcaraz in the final because their matches are always very competitive.  It was nice that the final went five sets and brought similar intensity.  Sinner is part of the new era of tennis that is rising after the era of the big three comes to a close,” said junior Kirin Doshi.