Back to the Tennis Newsfeed

What We Learned From the Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia — It didn't take long for the Australian Open to become controversial this year, although it had nothing to do with play on the courts.

On the first morning of Jan. 18, BBC and BuzzFeed News reports that match-fixing had gone unchecked in tennis overshadowed the start of the event known often as the "Happy Slam," because of its laid-back nature. Officials twice held media conferences over the first 10 days to address the issue.

Back on the court there were early upsets, including the first-round losses by Rafael Nadal to Fernando Verdasco and No.