The 2006 Australian Open was played between 16 and 29 January 2006.
Marat Safin could not defend his 2005 title, due to an injury he suffered in late 2005. Roger Federer won his second Australian Open title, defeating little-known Marcos Baghdatis in the final in four sets. Serena Williams was unsuccessful in defending her 2005 title, losing in the third round against Daniela Hantuchová. Amélie Mauresmo won her first Australian Open title, defeating 2004 champion Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final; Henin-Hardenne was forced to retire at 1–6, 0–2 down due to a stomach virus. It was her first (of three) Grand Slam final defeat for 2006.
Read more about 2006 Australian Open: Leadup
Famous quotes containing the words australian and/or open:
“The Australian mind, I can state with authority, is easily boggled.”
—Charles Osborne (b. 1927)
“The poorest children in a community now find the beneficent kindergarten open to them from the age of two-and-a-half to six years. Too young heretofore to be eligible to any public school, they have acquired in their babyhood the vicious tendencies of their own depraved neighborhoods; and to their environment at that tender age had been due the loss of decency and self-respect that no after example of education has been able to restore to them.”
—Virginia Thrall Smith (1836–1903)