As the professional tennis calendar starts up again, the anticipation for this year’s Australian open was sky high. Last year the four major grand slams were split between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. With Roger Federer winning Wimbledon and The Australian Open, meanwhile Rafael Nadal won the French and US Open. With many injuries on the ATP tour the favorites for this year’s Australian Open was Nadal and Federer, however with Novak Djokovic returning he could have made a push for the trophy also. Meanwhile on the women’s side of the draw the favorites were not quite as obvious. With Serena Williams having to withdraw before the tournament began, the winner could have been anybody. However, Sloane Stevens, Madison Keys and Simona Halep were predicted to go far.

The tournament started out disastrously for the Americans, Jack Sock, Sam Querry and John Isner all lost first or second round. Also, Sloane Stevens, Venus Williams and Coco Vandeweghe (who were favorites) were knocked out first round. However, as the tournament progressed the expected competitors all at least made it too the fourth round. However, after the fourth round is where it started getting interesting.

Novak Djokovic was returning from eight-month break and looked to be in good form heading to the second week, but suddenly a up and coming player Chung Hyeon defeated Djokovic in three straight sets, ending the Serbs run. In the other side of the draw Federer and Nadal rolled over the competition winning in three or four sets.

The four quarterfinal matches in the men’s draw were Rafael Nadal/Marin Cilic, Grigor Dimitrov/Kyle Edmund, Tennys Sandgren/Chung Hyeon and Tomas Berdych/Roger Federer. Unfortunately, despite being a heavy favorite Nadal had to withdraw from his match due to a hip injury, the two underdogs Kyle Edmunds and Chung Hyeon both won their match and Roger Federer easily beat Tomas Berdych.

Roger Federer and Marin Cilic were the two players to win their semifinals, then they faced off in the finals. It was a gut-wrenching final with both players competing to the best of their ability. Roger Federer easily won the first set, but Marin Cilic stormed a comeback in the second, Federer took the third, Cilic the fourth and finally in the last set Roger Federer raised his level and easily won six games to one. Roger Federer is now the only man in tennis history to have won 20 grand slams, he has now six Australian opens, is back to back Australian Open champion and is closer to being the number one in the world again.

In the women’s side of the draw the quarterfinals matches were Simona Halep/Karolina Pliskova, Angelique Kerber/Madison Keys, Elise Mertens and Carla Suarez Navarro/Caroline Wozniaki. Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber and Caroline Wozniaki all easily won in two straight sets. Then Simona Halep won a blockbuster match against Angelique Kerber going to 9-7 in the third set and Caroline Wozniaki won her semifinal easily. The finals were Caroline Wozniaki and Simona Halep, this was an important final. Both women had never won a grand slam before and the number one in the world ranking was on the line. In the end, it was Caroline Wozniaki who was victorious, winning 7-6, 3-6 6-4 in three tight sets. Wozniaki won her first grand slam and returned to world number one.

The next Grand Slam on the tennis calendar is the French Open which starts Sunday, May 27th.