Ranking the Most Dominant Performances in Australian Open History
It's one thing to win a Grand Slam tournament. It's quite another to plow through the field, overwhelming every opponent over two weeks.
Such dominance has occurred only occasionally at the Australian Open, and it's worthwhile to note those who achieved it.
It should be noted that the most dominant performance is not the same as the most impressive or most inspiring performance. Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova did not make this list in large part because they had to face each other, making it difficult for either to dominate a tournament. They faced each other three times in Australian Open finals, producing some spectacular tennis. But all three matches went three sets, eliminating the notion that either player dominated the tournament.
Domination, on the other hand, is the ease with which a player blows by all opponents on his or her way to a title. Winning each match in the tournament by a lopsided margin constitutes domination, regardless of the level of competition.
In ranking the 10 most dominant performances in Australian Open history, the quality of the opposition was given some consideration, and superiority in the later rounds carried a little more weight than supremacy in the early rounds. Ultimately, though, it was the degree to which a player dominated all Australian Open matches in a given year that determined our rankings.
We decided to list a given player only once, even though several players, including Steffi Graf and Novak Djokovic, have had more than one dominant run at the Australian Open.
10. Maria Sharapova, 2008
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Perhaps the best thing that happened to Maria Sharapova in the 2008 Australian Open occurred on another court.
Serena Williams had beaten Sharapova 15 times in a row, a streak that began at the 2005 Australian Open. But Jelena Jankovic did Sharapova the great service of beating Williams in the quarterfinals of the 2008 Australia Open, one round before Williams and Sharapova would have met.
With Williams out of the way, the No. 5-seeded Sharapova was free to complete a dominating tournament run in which she did not lose a single set and beat three top-five players in a row.
After cruising through the first three rounds, Sharapova dominated No. 11-seeded Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-0 in the fourth round.
She pulled off an upset in the quarterfinals and did it in convincing fashion, beating the No. 1 player in the world, Justine Henin, 6-4, 6-0.
"It's just incredible," Sharapova said, according to The Associated Press account after ending Henin's 32-match winning streak. "I think it was one of the most consistent matches where I did all the things I wanted to do."
That same day Jankovic eliminated Williams.
Back problems bothered the No. 3-seeded Jankovic in the semifinals, and Sharapova won easily, 6-3, 6-1, before having her most difficult match in the finals against No. 4 Ana Ivanovic.
Sharapova was not as sharp in the finals as she had been in her previous two matches, but she still won in straight sets 7-5, 6-3.
9. Evonne Goolagong, 1975
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Evonne Goolagong did not lose a set on her way to the 1975 Australian Open title, but the accomplishment that got her on this list was her dominating victory over Martina Navratilova in the finals.
Like Margaret Court's dominating 1970 performance, Goolagong benefited from not having to play some of the world's top players, many of whom, including Billie Jean King and Chris Evert, skipped the Australian Open.
It did not make her performance any less dominant, though.
Goolagong blew past Chris O'Neil 6-1, 6-0 in her first match and then knocked off Linda Mottram 6-3, 6-2 in her second. A 6-3, 7-5 victory over No. 6-seeded Kazuko Sawamatsu in the quarterfinals was her toughest match of the tournament.
She breezed to a 6-2, 6-4 semifinal victory over Sue Barker, who would win the French Open the next year, and then faced Navratilova.
Navratilova was just 18 at the time and had yet to win a major tournament. But she had beaten No. 1-seeded Margaret Court decisively 6-4, 6-3 in the quarterfinals and would reach the finals of the French Open a few months later.
However, Goolagong took Navratilova out with ease 6-3, 6-2.
When she received the trophy for her second consecutive Australian Open title, Goolagong cried on the shoulder of her coach, mourning the recent death of her father in a car accident.
8. Jim Courier, 1993
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Jim Courier lost just one set on his way to his second consecutive Australian Open title in 1993, and that lone lost set came in the finals after he had won the first two sets against Stefan Edberg.
Courier had been nearly as dominant in the 1992 Australian Open, losing just two sets on his way to the title. But he benefited from a default in the semifinals when Richard Krajicek was unable to play because of a shoulder injury, and Courier lost the first set to qualifier Thomas Enqvist in the second round.
There was no such early-round slip-ups in 1993, and Courier was even more dominant in the 1993 finals against Edberg than he was in the 1992 finals against the Swede.
In 1993, Courier blew by clay-court star Sergi Bruguera in the fourth round, 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 and then knocked off Christian Bergstrom, 6-4, 6-4, 6-1. After breezing past No. 14-seeded Michael Stich 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals, Courier faced only minor resistance from Edberg in the finals.
Edberg had already won six Grand Slam singles titles, including the U.S. Open just a few months earlier on a similar surface. But the conditions were different in the Australian Open finals, with the temperature reaching 104 degrees and the temperature on the hard courts rising to 153 degrees, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Courier seemed oblivious to the heat and crushed Edberg in the first two sets before allowing Edberg a brief rally, closing out a 6-2, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 victory.
Courier "bullied Stefan Edberg for two sets as few men ever have," the Los Angeles Times reported.
7. Margaret Court, 1970
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Margaret Court had the best year of her career in 1970, winning all four majors to complete the Grand Slam.
"In her Grand Slam season of 1970, she was nearly invincible all year long, winning 21 of 27 tournaments and 104 of 110 matches," tennis historian Steve Flink wrote in a Tennis Channel article.
She was certainly invincible in the first Grand Slam event that year, dropping just 13 games on her way to the title.
Court had two advantages in the 1970 Australian Open. Because the field included only 43 entrants, she had to win only five matches to take the crown, instead of the seven required these days. Also, the tournament was composed almost entirely of Australians, with a number of top players not participating. Billie Jean King, Virginia Wade, Nancy Richey and Rosie Casals were among the prominent players who did not play in Australia that year.
Court's superiority over the players who did participate cannot be questioned, however.
She lost a total of one game in her first two matches combined and then breezed to a 6-3, 6-1 quarterfinal victory over Evonne Goolagong, who was 18 but just a year from winning both the French Open and Wimbledon titles in 1971.
Court brushed aside No. 4-seeded Karen Krantzcke 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals and rolled to a 6-3, 6-1 win in the finals against No. 2-seeded Kerry Melville, who would win the Australian Open in 1977.
There never was a moment in any of her 1970 Australian Open matches that hinted Court might lose.
6. Novak Djokovic, 2011
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Novak Djokovic had two remarkable runs through the Australian Open, losing just one set in 2008 and one in 2011. Either might rank among the top 10 most dominant performances at the Australian Open.
However, since we are forced to pick one, the choice is his 2011 Australian Open because of the level of superiority he demonstrated in the late rounds against top-flight competition.
The Australian Open was the start of the best year in Djokovic's career and one of the best years by any player in the Open era. He had a 70-6 match record in 2011, and he won three of the four majors, losing in the semifinals of the French Open to Roger Federer.
Djokovic's play in Melbourne set the standard for the year.
He started with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Marcel Granollers and then suffered his only loss of a set in the tournament in the second round to Ivan Dodig. But Djokovic's superiority in the final two sets of that 7-5, 6-7, 6-0, 6-2 victory was so obvious it hardly matters.
Djokovic then brushed aside No. 14-seeded Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 in the fourth round before crushing three players ranked in the top six in the final three rounds.
He started by taking out No. 6-seeded Tomas Berdych 6-1, 7-6, 6-1. He then got by the No. 2-seeded Federer 7-6, 7-5, 6-4, winning the tiebreaker convincingly at 7-3 and overcoming a 5-2 deficit in the second set to take complete command.
Djokovic completed the run with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 demolition of No. 5-seeded Andy Murray in the finals.
"I thought Novak played unbelievably well," Murray said in the AP report.
The only caveat to Djokovic's 2011 Australian Open is that Federer and Murray did not seem to play their best tennis in their matches against him. That does not make Djokovic's performance any less dominating, however.
5. Ken Rosewall, 1971
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Ken Rosewall had a remarkable run through the Australian Open in 1971 and 1972. He lost only one set on his way to the title in 1972 at age 37, becoming the oldest player to win the event. But he was even more dominant in 1971, when he ran through a much better field of players without losing a set.
Rosewall's 1971 run was made a bit easier by the smaller field, and he needed to win only five matches to claim the title, instead of the seven required today.
The event was played on grass in those days, and in 1971 the tournament was moved to Sydney and played in March because of a sponsorship agreement. It was also the first year that a tiebreaker was used in the Australian Open, and it was implemented in every set except the fifth.
Rosewall's game seemed better suited to slow courts, because he did not have much of a serve and relied on his precise groundstrokes. But he wiped away an all-star field in 1971 on the fast surface.
His closest match came in his first match against the only unseeded player he faced in the tournament. That was against Bob Carmichael, a tall player with a big serve. Rosewall dispatched him 7-5, 7-5, 7-5 and then started building momentum by blowing by No. 16-seeded Ismail El Shafei 6-0, 6-2, 7-6.
Then came Rosewall's run through No. 6 seed Roy Emerson, No. 4 seed Tom Okker and No. 3 seed Arthur Ashe. He brushed aside Emerson, the winner of 12 previous Grand Slam singles titles, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 and then took out Okker, the 1968 U.S. Open finalist, 6-2, 7-6, 6-4. He finally routed defending Australian Open champion Ashe 6-1, 7-5, 6-3.
Ashe helped Rosewall dominate by double-faulting 13 times in just 14 service games. Ashe double-faulted four times in the sixth game of the match, and Rosewall finished off the opening set in just 19 minutes, according to a World Tennis report. Rosewall struggled only slightly in the second set before finishing Ashe off in the third.
4. Mary Pierce, 1995
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Mary Pierce is not a name people typically bring up when discussing the best players of the era. She was more known for her difficult relationship with her demanding coach-father, who was banned from the tour in 1993. But her performance in the 1995 Australian Open was among the best in recent history.
The fact that Steffi Graf did not play in Australia that year no doubt helped Pierce, but the way she steamrolled through the draw, you have to wonder whether Graf could have stood up to Pierce in that event.
Not only did Pierce win every set in her seven matches of the 1995 Australian Open, but she lost no more than six games in any match. She was not forced to a tiebreaker in a single match and was not even pushed to a 7-5 set.
And she didn't do it against patsies.
Seeded No. 4, Pierce won her first two matches 6-0, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-2. She eliminates No. 10-seeded Anke Huber 6-2, 6-4 in the fourth round in what was probably her most challenging match of the tournament.
Pierce then beat No. 8-seeded Natasha Zvereva 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals and recorded an easy 6-3, 6-1 semifinal victory over No. 2-seeded Conchita Martinez, who had won Wimbledon a few months earlier.
In her first Grand Slam final, Pierce faced Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who would have taken over the No. 1 ranking from Graf with a victory over Pierce and had beaten Pierce in four of their five previous meetings.
Sanchez Vicario was no match for Pierce this time, though, as Pierce cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 victory.
"She takes more control than any other players," Sanchez Vicario said of Pierce afterward in a report from The Washington Post. "She puts a lot of pressure on you."
3. Andre Agassi, 2003
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Andre Agassi's path to the 2003 Australian Open title was cleared by others, as he did not have to face any of the top 10 seeds to claim the title.
However, his run of total dominance through the final four rounds of that event was virtually unprecedented.
Agassi, the No. 2 seed, gave an indication of his superiority when he beat Lee Hyung-taik 6-1, 6-0, 6-0 in the second round, winning the final 18 games in succession. Agassi then lost a set for the only time in the tournament before subduing No. 29-seeded Nicolas Escude 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The loss of that set is the only thing preventing Agassi's 2003 Australian Open from being the most dominant performance in the Open era, because he was unstoppable after that.
Agassi crushed No. 12-seeded Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals and was equally dominant in a 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Wayne Ferreira in the semifinals.
Despite the one-sided nature of those victories, Agassi saved his most dominating performance for the finals. He took out Rainer Schuettler 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in just 76 minutes in the shortest Australian Open final since 1926. According to the BBC report, the result equaled the most one-sided finals in the 98-year history of the tournament.
At age 32, Agassi was playing the best tennis of his life.
"It's as if he puts you on a carousel and you just can't get off," Schuettler said, per USA Today. "From the first point on, I was under pressure. It's a bit disappointing to play a final and lose easy like that."
2. Steffi Graf, 1994
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Steffi Graf had three dominant performances at the Australian Open, any one of which deserves to make this list.
She did not lose a set while winning the Australian Open in 1988, the year she won all four majors to complete a Grand Slam, or in 1989. She did struggle just a bit in the finals of both, being forced to a second-set tiebreaker in a 6-1, 7-6 victory over Chris Evert in 1988 and losing eight games in a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Helena Sukova in 1989.
There was nothing close to a serious challenge in 1994, and her run through the late rounds that year was particularly impressive.
Graf came into the 1994 Australian Open having won three Grand Slam events in a row, and she had already captured 14 of the 22 major titles she would win in her career.
She was the heavy favorite and played like it.
After crushing her first four opponents, Graf made a statement in the final three rounds. First she knocked off Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals and then beat No. 10-seeded Kimiko Date 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals.
Graf's final-round opponent was second-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the one player who seemed to give Graf problems. In their previous five meetings, Sanchez Vicaro had beaten Graf twice and taken a set from her in two of the other matches. Sanchez Vicario had recorded a 6-0, 6-2 win over Graf three years earlier, and she would beat Graf again in the finals of the 1994 U.S. Open.
But she was no match for Graf in Australia in 1994.
In what may have been the most lopsided contest in their 36 career meetings, Graf beat Sanchez Vicario 6-0, 6-2 in just 58 minutes. It's the only time in the Open era that a player failed to win more than two games in an Australian Open finals. And Sanchez Vicario was the No. 2-ranked player in the world at the time.
Graf completed her seven matches in the tournament in a combined time of just six hours, 23 minutes.
''The way I'm playing now is a step forward from 1988,'' said Graf, in The New York Times report, referring to the year she won all four majors plus an Olympic gold medal. ''My game was limited in 1988.''
1. Roger Federer, 2007
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The 25-year-old Roger Federer had already won nine Grand Slam singles titles, including six of the past seven, when he began his march through the 2007 Australian Open.
He entered the tournament on a 45-match winning streak, with his last loss coming against Rafael Nadal in the finals of the 2006 French Open. He was at his absolute peak.
Federer did not lose a set while rolling through the 2007 Australian Open. His 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 victory over up-and-coming 19-year-old Novak Djokovic in the fourth round and the 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 10-seeded Fernando Gonzalez in the finals were impressive enough.
However, he placed his everlasting stamp of dominance on the tournament in his semifinal match against Andy Roddick.
Roddick had beaten Federer in a recent exhibition match, if that means anything, and there was a feeling that the 24-year-old American was closing the gap on Federer.
Instead, as The New York Times put it, "this hotly anticipated semifinal turned into an 83-minute ode to the brilliance of Federer and only Federer."
Roddick was in the match for a while. He was serving at 4-4, 30-15 when Federer turned into an invincible tennis machine. He won 11 consecutive games, taking 24 of 27 points in one stretch, before finishing off a 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 masterpiece.
Even Federer was surprised by his superiority.
"Look, it’s just unreal," said Federer, per The New York Times. "I’m shocked myself. I don’t know what to say. The tournament is not even over yet. Let’s not get carried away. Let me try to do it one more time."
He did it one more time, ending an impressive run of dominance.
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