Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova (, ; ; born October18, 1956) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, singles for 332 weeks (List of WTA number ...

defeated

Chris Evert Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful players of all time, she was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 2 ...

in the final, 6–7^(4–7), 6–4, 7–5 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 1981 Australian Open. It was her first

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

singles title and third

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

singles title overall. Evert was attempting to complete the career Grand Slam (she would achieve the feat the following year).

Hana Mandlíková Hana Mandlíková (born 19 February 1962) is a Czech–Australian former professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 3 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) in the mid-1980s. Mandíková won 27 WTA Tour-level sin ...

was the defending champion, but was defeated in the quarterfinals by Evert.

Seeds

The seeded players are listed below.

is the champion; others show the round in which they were eliminated. #

''(finalist)'' # Tracy Austin ''(quarterfinals)'' #

''(champion)'' # Andrea Jaeger ''(quarterfinals)'' #

''(quarterfinals)'' #

Pam Shriver Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster, pundit, and coach. She was ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and List of W ...

''(semifinals)'' #

Wendy Turnbull Wendy Turnbull, (born 26 November 1952) is an Australian retired tennis player. During her career, she won nine Grand Slam titles, four of them in women's doubles and five of them in mixed doubles. She also was a three-time Grand Slam runner-u ...

''(semifinals)'' # Evonne Goolagong ''(quarterfinals)'' #

Barbara Potter Barbara Potter (born October 22, 1961) is a former tennis player from the United States, who competed professionally on the WTA Tour between 1978 and 1989, winning six singles titles and 19 doubles titles. Her highest singles ranking was No. 7 ...

''(second round)'' # Mima Jaušovec ''(third round)'' # Virginia Ruzici ''(first round)'' # Bettina Bunge ''(third round)'' # Sue Barker ''(third round)'' # Kathy Jordan ''(third round)''

Qualifying

Draw

Key

* Q = Qualifier * WC = Wild card * LL =

Lucky loser A lucky loser is a sports competitor (player or team) who loses a match in a knockout tournament or loses in qualifying, but who then enters the main draw. This can occur when another competitor withdraws during the tournament because of illness ...

* r = Retired

Finals

Earlier rounds

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

External links

1981 Australian Open – Women's draws and results
at the International Tennis Federation {{DEFAULTSORT:1981 Australian Open - Women's Singles Women's singles Australian Open (tennis) by year – Women's singles Australian Open – Women's Singles