2011 Australian Open was taken from the "Serena Slam" which was coined when Serena Williams won all four Grand Slam titles in a row spanning two calendar years, which in turn was taken from the "Tiger Slam" in which golfer Tiger Woods accomplished a similar feat in golf. Nadal was the number one seed and led the field. The other top ten seeds were; sixteen time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer, 2008 Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic, two time Grand Slam finalists Robin Söderling and Andy Murray, Wimbledon runner up Tomáš Berdych, David Ferrer, 2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick, Fernando Verdasco and
2008 in tennis matches. Jelena Janković, the women's no. 3 seed, survived a first round scare against Tamira Paszek, saving five match points. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sent men's no. 9 seed Andy Murray packing with a 7–5, 6–4, 0–6, 7–6 win. 15 – After the ATP match-fixing scandal, the WTA Tour announced that several female tennis players had been approached about throwing tennis matches. Sofia Arvidsson caused the first big upset on the women's side, knocking out tenth seed Marion Bartoli. Gustavo Kuerten announces that he will officially retire after the French Open. 16 – Play at the Australian Open was disrupted for the