Back to BI 2014: the final serve

BI 2014: the final serve

Record crowds enjoyed eight days of on-court action and off-court entertainment at Brisbane International 2014 presented by Suncorp, where crowd favourites Lleyton Hewitt and world No.1 Serena Williams took out the men’s and women’s singles crowns.
7 January 2014, by brisbaneinternational.com.au

Record crowds enjoyed eight days of on-court action and off-court entertainment at Brisbane International 2014 presented by Suncorp, where crowd favourites Lleyton Hewitt (SA) and world No.1 Serena Williams (USA) took out the men’s and women’s singles crowns.

More than 105,000 fans flocked to Queensland Tennis Centre for the sixth edition of the event, which again featured an all-star cast of the world’s top tennis players.

After eight days of non-stop action, this is the final serve.

On-court action

·         Lleyton Hewitt (SA) claimed his 29th career ATP title with a thrilling win over top seed Roger Federer (SUI). The world No.60 outlasted Federer 6-1 4-6 6-3 to clinch his first title for 2014.

·         World No.1 Serena Williams (USA) won the women’s singles crown for a second successive year, defeating second seed Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 6-4 7-5. The win marked Williams’ 58th career singles title.  

·         No.2 seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL) and Daniel Nestor (CAN) won a hard-fought men’s doubles final, taking out the title in a third set super tiebreak. The pair overcame fourth seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL) and Robert Farah (COL) 7-6(4) 4-6 10-7.

·         Australian Anastasia Rodionova (Vic) and Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) claimed the women’s doubles title with a 6-3 6-1 win over Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) and Galina Voskoboeva (KAZ).

·         There were five Grand Slam champions with a collective 42 Grand Slam singles titles in the men’s and women’s main singles draw: Roger Federer 17 (SUI), Lleyton Hewitt 2 (SA), Serena Williams 17 (USA), Maria Sharapova 4 (RUS) and Victoria Azarenka 2 (BLR).

·         Brisbane International 2014 was the first time in 10 years an ATP World Tour event has featured three Australians in the quarter-finals of the main draw. Lleyton Hewitt (SA), Marinko Matosevic (Vic) and Sam Groth (Vic) all advanced to the quarter-finals in Brisbane, the first time since 2004 that three Australians have appeared in the final eight of an ATP World Tour event.

·         A total of 93 players competed in men’s and women’s main draw events, including both singles and doubles.

·         Twenty-four nations were represented among the 58 players competing in the singles main draw. There were 14 countries represented in the men’s singles and 16 in the women’s singles draw. 

·         65 sets were played in 27 matches in the men’s singles draw, with 11 matches (41 per cent) going to three sets. In 27 matches in the women’s singles draw a total of 62 sets were played, with eight matches (30 per cent) going to three sets. 

·         Sam Groth (Vic) clocked the fastest serve of the tournament at 234 km/h, and racked up 53 aces in three matches at the event, the most of any male player.

·         Serena Williams (USA) recorded the fastest serve in the women’s draw at 197 km/h, and posted the highest number of aces with 41 for the tournament.

·         Australian tennis icon Rod Laver was presented life membership of Tennis Queensland at a special on-court ceremony on Pat Rafter Arena.

·         Rod Laver and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley presented the men’s (Roy Emerson Trophy) and women’s (Evonne Goolagong-Cawley Trophy) prizes to the 2014 champions.

·         Twenty-eight schools contested the Brisbane International 2014 Schools Challenge Finals on court at Queensland Tennis Centre this week. Brisbane Grammar won the 12/U competition, and Brookfield State School took out the inaugural red ball competition.

Attendance

·         A bumper crowd of 105,730 fans attended Brisbane International 2014, setting a new attendance record for the event. The previous tournament record of 92,802 fans was set at Brisbane International 2012.

·         A record attendance was achieved on seven of eight days at the tournament. Only Day 3 of the event did not achieve a record crowd.

·         Famous faces in the stands included Australian tennis greats Rod Laver and Pat Rafter, Olympians Sally Pearson (athletics), Libby Trickett(swimming) and Natalie Cook (beach volleyball), former AFL footballer Simon Black, Brisbane Broncos captain Sam Thaiday, and television personalities Lincoln Lewis and Liz Cantor.
 

Broadcast and media

·         More than 100 print, radio and broadcast media provided detailed coverage of the event to media outlets worldwide, including broadcast footage to more than 60 countries.

Digital & social media

·         As at 4 January there were 995,857 unique visitors to brisbaneinternational.com.au  throughout the tournament period, a 16 per cent increase on 2013 numbers.

·         Total website visits throughout the event to 4 January numbered 1.4 million, a 25 per cent increase on 2013. Page views increased 12 per cent to 3.4 million.

·         The Brisbane International Facebook page grew to 33,150 likes and a weekly reach of 2.2 million. On Twitter, @brisbanetennis grew to 13,997 followers, with up-to-the-minute event coverage and exclusive behind the scenes posts.

·         The most re-tweeted post of the tournament was, “He’s finally here! @CamPearson1 welcomes @RogerFederer to Queensland #brisbanetennis”, which was retweeted 342 times and amassed 548 favourites.

·         Hundreds of thousands of tennis fans tuned into the Brisbane International YouTube channel throughout the tournament, featuring 35 hours of content and attracting over 1.7 million views.

 

Information technology

·         More than 6km of temporary cable was wired throughout the venue for the event.

·         More than 120 televisions were installed around the precinct, keeping spectators, officials and the media up to date with all the on-court action, scores and results.

Tournament operations

·         The Wilson stringers hut restrung 1001 racquets, using more than 10km of string.

·         Fifteen racquets were rapidly restrung for players during match play. The fastest restring was for Kei Nishikori (JPN), who had two racquets restrung and returned to him on court within three games.

·         Serena Williams (USA) had the most racquets restrung of any player in the main draw, sending 39 racquets to the stringers.

·         The most racquets restrung in one day by one stringer was 45. On the busiest day at the hut, Friday 27 December, each stringer restrung more than 40 racquets.

·         Matches were officiated by 110 umpires and linespersons from around Australia and overseas. Twenty-three international officials attended the event from 17 countries, including France, Sweden, Egypt, South Africa, China, Korea and India.

·         There were 125 ballkids aged 12 to 17 in the 2014 Suncorp ballkids squad.

·         A total of 11,809 Wilson tennis balls were used throughout the event.

·         Four hundred and twelve bags of player laundry were cleaned in the duration of the event.

·         Fans enjoyed a wide selection of food and beverages including more than 32,000 serves of strawberries and ice cream, more than 20,000 scoops of ice cream and more than 30,000 bottles of Mount Franklin water.

·         The Player Café served an average of 250 portions of pasta per day.

·         Players were transported by a fleet of 26 Volkswagen cars during the tournament, with more than 180 hours of driving time clocked up by the team of 60 volunteer drivers.

·         1832 staff, including 570 volunteers and 112 officials, worked behind the scenes to deliver the event.

Community tennis

·         A record crowd attended Suncorp SunWise Kids Day on Monday 30 December, highlighted by appearances from world No.1 Serena Williams(USA), Roger Federer (SUI), Victoria Azarenka (BLR) and Nickelodeon favourites Spongebob SquarePantsDora the Explorer and theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The event was produced in association with Nickelodeon for the first time.  

·         Thousands of junior fans joined famous faces including Kei Nishikori (JPN), Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) and Elina Svitolina (UKR) for a hit of tennis on the mini courts at Queensland Tennis Centre.

·         Cardio Tennis, launched in 2012, was showcased in front of thousands of patrons and local tennis fans.