Defending champion

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...

defeated

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, 5–7, 6–4, 6–2, 6–7^(5–7), 7–5 to win the men's singles tennis title at the 2012 Australian Open. It was his third

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

title and fifth

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

title overall. The final lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes, which is the longest match in duration in Australian Open history and the longest major singles final by duration in the

Open Era The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sp ...

. It is often considered to be among the greatest matches in tennis history, and marked Nadal's third consecutive major final loss to Djokovic, with Nadal becoming the first man to lose three consecutive major finals in the Open Era. This edition of the tournament saw the top four seeds advance to the semifinals. This is also the last Grand Slam in which all members of the Big Four made it to the semifinals. This was the last major appearance for former world No. 3

Ivan Ljubičić Ivan Ljubičić (; born 19 March 1979) is a Croatian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 3 singles ranking on 1 May 2006. His career highlights include reaching a Grand S ...

. It was also the last Australian Open for former world No. 1's

Andy Roddick Andrew Stephen Roddick (born 30 August 1982) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals (Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Open ...

Juan Carlos Ferrero Juan Carlos Ferrero Donat (; born 12 February 1980) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. He won the men's singles title at the 2003 French Open, and in September of that year became the 21st player to hold the top ranking, which he h ...

, and former world No. 3

David Nalbandian David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine retired professional tennis player who played on the ATP Tour from 2000 until his retirement in 2013. He reached the highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006. Nalban ...

Seeds

Qualifying

Wildcards

Draw

Finals

Top half

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Bottom half

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Notes

References

;General * ;Specific

External links

2012 Australian Open – Men's draws and results
at the

International Tennis Federation The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Open - Men's Singles,2012 Men's Singles

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...