2018 Australian Open in review

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After fortnight of competition, the 2018 Australian Open has crowned its champions. Caroline Wozniacki wins her first ever singles Grand Slam trophy in her career, and the World No.1 Ranking since 2012. Roger Federer defends his title, securing his 20th Grand Slam title.

Caroline Wozniacki poses with trophy of World No.1 in Beijing in 2010. /VCG Photo

After winning the title in Beijing in 2010, the Danes first move to Top 1, and having ranked a total of 67 weeks between 2010 and 2012 with no Grand Slam title, she spent all but one week of year at No.1 (Kim Clijsters rose to No.1 the week of February 14 when she won the Paris Premier).

After winning the Australian Open, Wozniacki will return to the top ranking on Monday.

Caroline Wozniacki poses with trophy. /VCG Photo

Wozniacki had played in two major finals, once against Kim Clijsters in the 2009 US Open and another with Serena Williams in the 2014 US Open. She finally won a major title, but it’s not an easy achievement as Wozniacki saved match points in the second round against Jana Fett, and held back when she was 4-3 down during the last set of the final.

"I think being the new Grand Slam champion and World No.1 sounds pretty good, I'm very excited for that. It's a dream come true," said the new Australian Open champion.

Meanwhile, another former world No.1, Angelique Kerber came back strong with her first title since 2016 in Sydney. She stormed into semi-finals in Melbourne again but missed two match points in the semi-finals when she faced Simona Halep.

Roger Federer kisses the trophy. /VCG Photo

On the men’s side, Roger Federer’s emotional victory has made a new record: He is the first male, and the fourth player overall, to have won 20 or more Grand slam singles titles. Margaret Court won 24, Serena Williams has 23 (so far) and Steffi Graf got 22.

Rafael Nadal takes a medical suspension in quarterfinal against Marin Cilic. /VCG Photo

Federer created history, while Rafael Nadal suffered from his health problems, retiring with a right leg injury while 2-0 down in the deciding set of the quarterfinal against Marin Cilic. The Spaniard will be out of action for the next few weeks.

Chung Hyeon celebrates his victory to reach the semi-finals. /VCG Photo

Elsewhere, the six-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic was knocked out by World No.58 Chung Hyeon in the fourth round.

Unfortunately, the champion of the Next Gen Finals last November retired due to his left foot injury during the semi-final against Roger Federer when he was 6-1, 5-2 down. But he will definitely be back.

Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic pose with trophy. /VCG Photo

The competition of Women Doubles was wild open. Martina Hingis retired for the third time last year, Bethanie Mattek-Sands did not come back due to injury, and the Williams’s sisters didn’t play doubles for a long time.

Both Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic took the title for their first time in Melbourne by 6-4, 6-3, denying Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina a career Slam (The Russian team won French Open in 2013, US Open in 2014, the Rio Olympics in 2016 and last year’s Wimbledon Championships). Kristina Mladenovic will return to Top 10 of women singles ranking after she lost 15 singles match in a row since last August.

Two mix doubles team pose after ceremony. /VCG Photo

In addition, Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic won the men's doubles title by beating the Colombian team of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the final 6-4, 6-4. And Pavic returned to Rod Laver arena on Sunday, who successfully chasing the Mix Doubles title with Gabriela Dabrowski, beating Rohan Bopanna and Timea Babos 2-6, 6-4, 11-9.

Zhang Shuai celebrates her winning. /VCG Photo

This is the first time no players from Chinese mainland have reached the women's singles third round since 2006. Zhang Shuai who beat US Open Champion Sloane Stephens by 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-2 in the first round was defeated by Denisa Allertova, 6-4, 7-6(5); while Duan Yingying was knocked out by French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko by 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

China’s Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-Wei in match. /VCG Photo

However, Chinese players did well in doubles. Two-time Grand Slam champion cross-Strait pair, China’s Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei, reached the semi-final and lost to the champion team Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic. China’s Xu Yifan and Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski defeated Russian team Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in quarter final, 0-6, 6-0, 7-6(2).

China’s Wang Xinyu and Liang En Shuo pose with trophy. / VCG Photo

Meanwhile, China’s teenager talent Wang Xinyu has reached the semi-final of girls’ singles after she lost the first round in adult women singles match as a wildcard player. She won the girls’ doubles for the first time in her career with Chinese Taipei’s Liang En Shuo, who’s taken out the girls’ singles trophy earlier. Liang became the first player from Chinese Taipei to win both singles and doubles title at the same time in any Grand Slam.

Wang is the first Chinese girl to win girls’ doubles since Sun Shengnan in 2004, who partnered with Chinese Taipei’s Chan Yung-Jan (Who is the current women double’s No.1, and changed her name to Latisha Chan recently).