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BI2015: The final serve

14 January 2015, by brisbaneinternational.com.au

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 11: Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates a point in the Mens final match against Milos Raonic of Canada during day eight of the 2015 Brisbane International at Pat Rafter Arena on January 11, 2015 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Huge crowds enjoyed eight days of action at the 2015 Brisbane International where top seeds Roger Federer (SUI) and Maria Sharapova (RUS) took out the men’s and women’s singles crowns.
Almost 100,000 fans flocked to Queensland Tennis Centre for the seventh edition of the event, which once again featured an all-star cast of the world’s top tennis players.
After eight days of blistering on-court action, this is the final serve.

On-court action

  • Roger Federer (SUI) claimed his 83rd ATP title with a thrilling win over third seed Milos Raonic (CAN). The world No.2 outlasted the rising star 6-4 6-7(2) 6-4 to clinch his first title for 2015.
  • Roger Federer (SUI) became only the third player in the Open era to win at least 1000 singles matches on the ATP World Tour, joining Ivan Lendl (USA) and Jimmy Connors (USA) in achieving the milestone. Federer’s ATP win-loss record now sits at 1000-227.
  • Top seed and world No.2 Maria Sharapova (RUS) won her maiden Brisbane International title and 34th career crown, defeating second seed Ana Ivanovic (SRB) 6-7(4) 6-3 6-3.
  • Jamie Murray (GBR) and John Peers (Vic) took out the men’s doubles final over Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) and Kei Nishikori (JPN) 6-3 7-6(4).
  • Swiss champ Martina Hingis and world No.27 Sabine Lisicki (GER) claimed the women’s doubles title with a 6-2 7-5 win over No.4 seeds Caroline Garcia (FRA) and Katarina Srebotnik (SLO).
  • There were six Grand Slam champions with a collective 28 Grand Slam singles titles in the men’s and women’s main singles draw: Roger Federer 17 (SUI), Lleyton Hewitt 2 (SA), Maria Sharapova 5 (RUS), Victoria Azarenka 2 (BLR), Ana Ivanovic 1 (SRB) and Sam Stosur 1 (Qld).
  • Twenty-five nations were represented among the 58 players competing in the singles main draw. There were 17 countries represented in the men’s singles and 16 in the women’s singles draw.
  • Eleven Australians competed in the singles main draw; seven in the men’s and four in the women’s. 
  • Sixty-seven sets were played in 27 matches in the men’s singles draw, with 12 matches (44 per cent) going to three sets. In 29 matches in the women’s singles draw a total of 68 sets were played, with 10 matches (34 per cent) going to three sets.
  • Sam Groth (Vic) clocked the fastest serve of the tournament at 235 km/h and Madison Keys (USA) recorded the fastest serve in the women’s draw at 198 km/h.
  • Milos Raonic (CAN) served the most aces of the event with 80 to his name, while Ana Ivanovic (SRB) posted 23 to finish top of the women’s tally.
  • A total of 49,100 aces were served on Pat Rafter Arena, with tournament partner Treasury Casino & Hotel donating $49,100 to Royal McDonald House South East Queensland as part of the inaugural Aces for Hearts initiative. 
  • All-time greats Rod Laver, Roy Emerson and Ashley Cooper were named Icons of Queensland Tennis at a special on-court ceremony on Pat Rafter Arena, and unveiled commemorative busts in their honour to be permanently displayed at Queensland Tennis Centre.
  • Roy Emerson attended the official opening of the Roy Emerson Tennis Centre at Milton and was presented life membership of Tennis Queensland. Aussie legends Rod Laver, Mal Anderson and Ashley Cooper joined Emerson at the opening event.
  • Roy Emerson and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley presented the Roy Emerson Trophy and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley Trophy to the 2015 champions. It was the first time in the event’s seven-year history both namesakes have been at Pat Rafter Arena to present the event’s top honours.
  • Thirty-five schools contested the Brisbane International 2015 Schools Challenge Finals on court at Queensland Tennis Centre. Nudgee Junior College won the 12/U competition, St Andrew’s Anglican College won the inaugural orange ball competition and Brookfield State School took out the red ball competition for the second year running.

Attendance

  • A massive crowd of 97,034 fans attended Brisbane International 2015, the second highest total in the tournament’s history. The all-time event record stands at 105,730 set in 2014.
  • A record attendance was achieved at five of the 14 sessions of play.
  • Famous faces in the crowd included Australian tennis greats Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, rapper Nelly, motor racing champion Craig Lowndes, golfer Adam Scott, model Danielle Knudson, Olympians Sally Pearson (athletics), Libby Trickett (swimming), Bronte and Cate Campbell (swimming) and Natalie Cook (beach volleyball), rugby league legend Wally Lewis and AFL footballers Dayne Zorko and Sam Mayes.

 Broadcast and media

  • More than 100 print, radio, local television and photographic media provided detailed coverage of the event to news outlets worldwide.
  • More than 60 broadcast partners televised the event in more than 175 countries worldwide.
  • Last year’s event generated more than 4300 hours of broadcast content around the world and attracted more than 16 million viewers.
  • In 2015 the event coverage was produced by Tennis Australia for the first time. Tennis Australia will host broadcast Australian Open 2015 for the first time later this month.

 Digital and social media

  • The Brisbane International Facebook page grew to 48,993 likes and a weekly reach of 2.4 million.
  • The most engaging Facebook post was Roger Federer’s (SUI) Round 2 result against Queenslander John Millman, which reached more than 200,000 people and accrued almost 12,000 likes.
  • On Twitter, @brisbanetennis grew to 19,467 followers, with up-to-the-minute event coverage and exclusive behind the scenes posts. Tweets were viewed by more than 4 million followers, with the hashtags #BrisbaneTennis, #BrisbaneInternational and #Roger1000 trending nationwide.
  • The most re-tweeted post of the tournament was ‘Congratulations @rogerfederer! #Roger1000 #BrisbaneTennis’, which has so far been retweeted 533 times and attracted 463 favourites.
  • Vision of press conferences, match highlights, practice sessions and more was uploaded to the tournament’s official YouTube channel, which attracted more than 600,000 views during the tournament period. The most watched video – Ana Ivanovic (SRB) and Angelique Kerber (GER) on the practice court – was viewed more than 54,000 times, with the channel accruing more than 1000 new subscribers within the week.

Information technology

  • More than 8km of temporary cable was wired throughout the venue for the event.
  • Ninety-nine 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 Matchpoint stringers hut restrung more than 900 racquets, using more than 9km of string.
  • Maria Sharapova (RUS) had the most racquets restrung of any player in the main draw, sending 49 racquets to the stringers.
  • Matches were officiated by 100 umpires and linespersons from around Australia and overseas. Twenty-two international officials attended the event from 16 countries including Croatia, Norway, Egypt, Brazil, South Africa, China and Korea.
  • There were 120 ballkids aged 12 to 17 in the 2015 Suncorp ballkids squad.
  • A total of 12,528 Wilson tennis balls were used throughout the event.
  • Four hundred and eight bags of player laundry were cleaned over 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 400 portions of pasta per day.
  • Players were transported by a fleet of 25 Volkswagen cars during the tournament, with more than 4680 hours of driving time clocked up by the team of 64 volunteer drivers.
  • 743 staff, including 564 volunteers and 102 officials, worked behind the scenes to deliver the event.

Community tennis

  • A record crowd attended Suncorp Kids Day on Sunday 4 January, highlighted by appearances from Roger Federer (SUI), Milos Raonic (CAN), Grigor Dimitrov (BUL), Martina Hingis (SUI), Victoria Azarenka (BLR) and Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) as well as ARIA chart-toppers Justice Crew and Nickelodeon favourites Spongebob SquarePants, Dora and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  • Thousands of junior fans joined players including Madison Keys (USA), Elina Svitolina (UKR), John Millman (Qld) and James Duckworth (NSW) for a hit of Hot Shots on court at Queensland Tennis Centre.