The Australian Open has been in existence since 1905 and brings together some of the best players in the industry. The venue for the matches is Melbourne Park in Australia. The women’s singles games started in 1922 and initially followed the knockout and best of three-set format. The rules, however, later changed and started to include the advantage format incorporating 6 and 2 game differences. In 1971, the officials introduced the lingering death tiebreak, best of 12 point system. Until 1987, the game was on grass courts after which they made the migration to hard courts. Serena Williams remains the only Australian Open player to win the championship on the two different courts.
Notable Achievements
• Most wins go to Margaret Molesworth and Daphne Akhurst. The wins were between 1922-1923 and 1925-1926, respectively.
• Most titles record goes to Margaret Court between the years 1960 to 1966. She took home seven wins, thus giving her the most consecutive title’s record as well.
• Most victories go to Serena Williams in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015 and 2017.
• Most consecutive titles go to Margaret Court from 1969 to 1971. 1974 to 1976 Evonne Goolagong took the record. 1988 to 1990 it went to Steffi Graf. 1991 to 1993 to Monica Seles. Martina Hingis held the records from 1997 to 1999.
Australian Open Straight-Set Winners
•
Margaret Court 1969, 1970, 1973
• Virginia Wade 1972
• Kerry Melvil Reid January 1977
• Evonne Goolagong 1975,1976, December 1977
• Chris O’Neal 1978
• Barbara Jordan 1979
• Hana Mandlikova 1980, 1987
• Martina Navratilova 1983
• Steffi Graf 1988, 1989, 1994
• Monica Seles 1992, 1996
• Mary Pierce 1995
• Martina Hingis 1997, 1998, 1999
• Lindsay Davenport 2000
• Jennifer Capriati 2001
• Amelie Mauresmo 2006
• Maria Sharapova 2008
• Victoria Azarenka 2012
• Li Na 2014
• Serena Williams 2007, 2009, 2015, 2017