2008 Australian Open

Date

14–27 January

Edition

96th

Category

Grand Slam (ITF)

Surface

Hardcourt (Plexicushion)

Location

Melbourne, Australia

Venue

Champions

Jonathan Erlich /

Sun Tiantian /

Ksenia Lykina /

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Wheelchair Men's Singles

Shingo Kunieda

Wheelchair Women's Singles

Esther Vergeer

Wheelchair Quad Singles

Peter Norfolk

Wheelchair Men's Doubles

Shingo Kunieda /

Satoshi Saida

Wheelchair Women's Doubles

Jiske Griffioen /

Esther Vergeer

Wheelchair Quad Doubles

Nick Taylor /

David Wagner

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Australian Open

· 2009 →

The 2008 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 96th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 through 27 January 2008.

After twenty years of playing on Rebound Ace, the courts were changed to Plexicushion, a marginally faster surface. The new surface is thinner, and therefore has lower heat retention. This decision was made in a bid to reduce the "stick" of the court and the frequency of the extreme heat policy being invoked. However, the new surface faced criticism for being too similar to DecoTurf, the surface used at the U.S. Open. Player reaction to the change of surface was generally ambivalent.

Both Roger Federer and Serena Williams were unsuccessful in defending their 2007 titles; Federer losing to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals and Williams losing in the quarter-finals to Jelena Jankovic. Djokovic won his first Grand Slam singles title, defeating unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final; Maria Sharapova, runner-up to Williams in 2007, defeated Ana Ivanovic to win her first Australian Open title and third Grand Slam title.

For the mixed doubles, in every game, the first team to score four points, wins the game. In other words, should a deuce happen in a game, the team who wins the next point wins the game.

On 30 May 2007, Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley announced that as of the 2008 Australian Open, the Rebound Ace surface that had been used since 1988 would be replaced by a newer, faster Plexicushion surface. The Rebound Ace surface had been criticized for several years, from players including Andy Roddick and Mark Philippoussis, who claimed that the "stick" of the court was a contributing factor in many players injuring themselves. This "stick" was a result of the thick rubber mat (10 mm) laid beneath the surface, the high heat retention because of this, and the high temperatures present during the Australian summer, which intermittently resulted in the extreme heat policy being invoked. Conversely, players such as Pete Sampras and Marat Safin put the high number of injuries down to lack of preparation from players; partly due to the fact that the tournament is held so early in the year, but also because there were so few tournaments preceding it. Rebound Ace was also chastised by Lleyton Hewitt for having an inconsistent bounce, in terms of height and pace (shock absorption); and claimed that these factors varied depending on the weather. The heat retention of the surface had also been a point of contention between players.

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