Steffi Graf may once again find herself on the red clay of Roland Garros for the French Open. In a promise to her husband, Andre Agassi, Graf said she would play mixed doubles at the Open if Agassi won the Australian Open.
It only took 76 minutes for Agassi to defeat Rainer Schuettler 6-2, 6-2, 6-1. The match was one of the quickest Grand Slam finals in history. Agassi, with his fourth Australian Open title, has eight Grand Slam titles to his credit.
Agassi beat Brian Vahaly 7-5, 6-3, 6-3; Hyung-Taik Lee 6-1, 6-0, 6-0; Nicolas Escude 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Guillermo Coria 6-1, 3-1 (ret.); Sebastien Grojean 6-3, 6-2, 6-2; and Wayne Ferreira 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 on his way to the finals. The minimum number of sets that must be played to win the championship is 21, but Agassi only played 20.5 sets, due to Coria retiring due to a wrist injury.
Lleyton Hewitt was upset in the fourth round by Younes El Aynaoui. A home country first seed has yet to make it past the round of 16 in a Grand Slam tournament. Schuett-ler, who fell to Agassi in the finals, defeated Americans James Blake in the quarterfinals and Andy Roddick in the semifinals. Roddick had to play 40 games in the final set of his quarterfinal match against El Aynaoui in what became the longest fifth set in Open history at two hours and 23 minutes.
In women’s singles, Venus and Serena Williams once again met in the finals. By defeating her sister 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4, Serena now holds all four Grand Slam titles. Serena beat Emilie Loit 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5; Els Callens 6-4, 6-0; Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-1, 6-1; Eleni Daniilidou 6-4, 6-1; Meghann Shaughnessy 6-2, 6-2; and fourth-seeded Kim Clijsters 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to advance to the Open finals.
The third-seeded Jennifer Capriati was upset in the first round by Marlene Weingartner. Anna Kournikova made it to the second round before losing to Justine Henin-Hardenne. Henin-Hardenne also beat Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinals before losing to Venus in the semifinals.
The Williams sisters also outclassed the competition on the doubles court. Serena and Venus defeated Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to win their sixth Grand Slam doubles title. After the match, Suarez said, “I hope that next year Venus and Serena don’t play [doubles] and we can win the championship.” The Williams had been given the first-seed over Ruano Pascual and Suarez despite their lower ranking.
Martina Navratilova became the oldest Grand Slam Champion at 46 years old playing mixed doubles. Together with Leander Paes, Navratilova beat Todd Woodbridge and Daniilidou 6-4, 7-5. This was Navratilova’s 57th career Grand Slam title.
This first slam of the year has had many twists and turns, enough to send the crowd into a frenzy. The next Grand Slam tournament will be the French Open in Paris, which starts in late May.
