The 2023 Australian Open by the numbers

The first major of the 2023 season is in the books, and a new Grand Slam champion has been crowned in Aryna Sabalenka. Here are all the key numbers from her long-awaited triumph, and a fortnight full of new milestones and surprises.

Australian Open reaction

247 – Winners struck by champion Aryna Sabalenka en route to her first Grand Slam title. Sabalenka won 524 total points over the fortnight, meaning that she won 47% of those with clean winners.

11 – Consecutive match wins for Sabalenka, whose Australian Open title followed a trophy at Adelaide 1 in the first week of 2023. She is 22-1 in sets this year, with her sole dropped set coming in the Australian Open final to Elena Rybakina. It is the second-longest winning streak of Sabalenka’s career following the 15 straight matches she won over the end of 2020 and start of 2021.

7 – Consecutive wins in Grand Slams after losing the first set for Sabalenka, a streak that started at the 2021 Australian Open with a trio of victories over Storm Hunter, Wang Xinyu and Marketa Vondrousova. She added comeback wins over Chloe Paquet at Roland Garros 2021 and over Kaia Kanepi and Danielle Collins at the US Open 2021, and extended the streak with her defeat of Rybakina this week. Prior to 2021, Sabalenka had lost 15 out of her previous 18 Grand Slam matches after losing the first set.

3 – Sabalenka is the third player this century to win her first 20 sets of the season following Anna Smashnova in 2002 and Agnieszka Radwanska in 2013.

5 – Sabalenka is the fifth player in the Open Era to win her first Grand Slam final from a set down. She joins Nancy Richey (Roland Garros 1968 over Ann Jones 5-7, 6-4, 6-1), Jelena Ostapenko (Roland Garros 2017 over Simona Halep 4-6, 6-4, 6-3), Sofia Kenin (Australian Open 2020 over Garbiñe Muguruza 4-6, 6-2, 6-2) and Elena Rybakina (Wimbledon 2021 over Ons Jabeur 3-6, 6-2, 6-2).

4 – Sabalenka is the fourth player in the past 50 years to have won her first major after losing her first three Grand Slam semifinals. She follows Gabriela Sabatini, who lost seven semifinals and one final before winning the 1990 US Open; Lindsay Davenport, who fell in three straight semifinals at the 1997 US Open, 1998 Australian Open and Roland Garros 1998 before winning the 1998 US Open; and Jennifer Capriati, who lost four semifinals before winning the 2001 Australian Open.

2 – Sabalenka will return to her career-high ranking of No.2 after the Australian Open. She first reached that position in August 2021 and remained there until February 2022.

7 – Rybakina is the seventh player in the past 50 years to have won her first Grand Slam final, then reached her second within the subsequent 12 months. She joins Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Francesca Schiavone, Naomi Osaka, Ashleigh Barty and Sofia Kenin.

6-2 – Rybakina’s overall record against Grand Slam champions at Grand Slam tournaments. She defeated Iga Swiatek, Jelena Ostapenko and Victoria Azarenka in consecutive rounds this fortnight, adding to prior wins over Bianca Andreescu and Simona Halep en route to the Wimbledon 2022 title, and over Serena Williams at Roland Garros 2021. Her only losses in such encounters came to Ashleigh Barty at the 2021 Australian Open and Halep at the 2021 US Open.

Rybakina was the first player to beat three Grand Slam champions at the Australian Open since Jennifer Capriati, who defeated Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis en route to the 2001 title.

1 – Rybakina will become the first player representing Kazakhstan to reach the Top 10 in the WTA Rankings following the Australian Open.

54 – Rybakina’s ace tally over the fortnight, the highest total of the women’s singles event. She also finished the competition with the joint-fastest serve (along with Coco Gauff) at 195 kmph, set in her first-round win over Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

5 – Players who reached the second week in both the 2022 and 2023 Australian Opens: Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula, Victoria Azarenka, Iga Swiatek and Barbora Krejcikova. Pegula was the only player to reach the quarterfinals in both years.

4 – Victoria Azarenka became the fourth player in the Open Era to reach the semifinals of a major 10 years or more after her previous appearance. She returned to the last four for the first time in Melbourne since her 2013 title run, joining Jennifer Capriati (Roland Garros 1990-2001, Wimbledon 1991-2001 and the US Open 1991-2001), Serena Williams (Roland Garros 2003-2013) and Venus Williams (Australian Open 2003-17).

0-6 – Magda Linette’s record in Grand Slam third rounds prior to this fortnight. The Pole fell at that stage at Roland Garros 2017 and 2021; the Australian Open 2018; Wimbledon 2019 and 2021; and the US Open 2020. At the age of 30 in her 30th Grand Slam main draw, she broke through to the fourth round for the first time, and went all the way to the semifinals.

4 – Top 10 wins for Linette, all of which have come on the Grand Slam stage. Her 7-6(3), 6-4 upset of No.4 seed Caroline Garcia in the fourth round was the latest of those.

3 – Players who reached the second week of a major for the first time. Along with Linette, Zhu Lin scored her first career Top 10 win over No.6 seed Maria Sakkari to make the fourth round, and 17-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova made the last 16 on her tournament debut.

10 – Players who made their Grand Slam main draw debut this fortnight (including two who were making their tour-level debuts, teenage qualifiers Diana Shnaider and Polina Kudermetova). Three reached the second round: Shnaider (who took a set off Maria Sakkari in her first meeting with a Top 10 player), Lucrezia Stefanini and Olivia Gadecki.

1 – Main draw match won from match point down, qualifier Cristina Bucsa’s 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-4 defeat of Bianca Andreescu in the second round. Two qualifying matches were won from match point down, both in the opening round — Simona Waltert saved one match point to beat Greet Minnen 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-1, and Leolia Jeanjean saved two to beat Irina Bara 7-5, 1-6, 7-6[7].

2 – Main draw matches that were decided by a first-to-10 match tiebreak: Donna Vekic’s 6-2, 2-6, 7-6[7] first-round defeat of qualifier Oksana Selekhmeteva, and No.13 seed Danielle Collins’ 6-7(1), 6-2, 7-6[6] second-round win over Karolina Muchova.

3:12 – Length of the longest main draw match of the fortnight, Laura Siegemund’s 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 defeat of No.27 seed Irina-Camelia Begu in the second round. Collins won both the second- and third-longest matches — over Anna Kalinskaya 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 in the first round in 3 hours and 3 minutes, then over Muchova in her next round in 2 hours and 55 minutes.

3:18 – Length of the girls’ singles final, which saw Alina Korneeva triumph 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-5 over Mirra Andreeva in a clash of 15-year-olds. Korneeva played just six pro events in 2022, but compiled an 18-5 record to rise to a year-end ranking of No.771. Andreeva compiled a 39-9 record in 2022, including four ITF titles; she made her tour-level debut as a wild card in Monastir, where she took Anastasia Potapova to three sets, and is now ranked No.292.

24 – Consecutive Grand Slam matches won by doubles champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, who became the first team to successfully defend their Australian Open title since Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in 2013-14.