Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WT ...

defeated her sister

Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American inactive tennis player. She has been ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA for 11 wee ...

in the final, 7–6^(7–4), 3–6, 6–4 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2003 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 fourth consecutive

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 triumph, completing the "Serena Slam", both a non-calendar year Grand Slam and the career Grand Slam. It was Venus' record fourth consecutive runner-up finish at a major, losing every final to Serena. Serena saved two match points en route to the title, against Kim Clijsters in the semifinals (where at one point in the third set Serena was 1–5 down). Jennifer Capriati was the two-time defending champion, but lost to

Marlene Weingärtner Marlene Weingärtner (born 30 January 1980) is a retired tennis player from Germany. She is a former top 40 player in both singles and doubles. Career The most remarkable moment of her career was her first-round match at the 2003 Australian ...

in the first round. Capriati's loss marked the first time the defending Australian Open champion lost in the first round, and the first time at any major that the defending champion lost in the first round since

Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a r ...

at the

1994 Wimbledon Championships The 1994 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 108th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held from ...

. With

Lindsay Davenport Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 98 weeks (including as the year-end No. 1 four ...

's defeat in the fourth round, a first-time Australian Open champion was guaranteed. This marked the final Australian Open appearance of four-time champion

Monica Seles Monica Seles (born December 2, 1973) is a Serbian–American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...

; she lost to

Klára Koukalová Klára Koukalová (formerly Zakopalová; born 24 February 1982) is a Czech former tennis player. She was born and still lives in Prague. Having turned professional in 1999, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 20, on 15 April 2 ...

in the second round. It was also the first Australian Open final without

Martina Hingis Martina Hingis (, ; born 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 209 weeks ( fifth-most of all time) and as the world No. ...

since

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. This marked the first major appearance of two future world No. 1's: five-time major champion

Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...

and

Jelena Janković Jelena Janković ( sr-Cyrl, Јелена Јанковић, ; born 28 February 1985) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the W ...

, who lost to

and

Amanda Coetzer Amanda Coetzer (born 22 October 1971, in Hoopstad) is a South African former professional tennis player. Coetzer finished in the WTA rankings top 20 for ten consecutive seasons (1992–2001), peaking at world No. 3. She reached three Grand Sla ...

in the first and second rounds respectively. It was also the major main draw debut of future US Open champion

Flavia Pennetta Flavia Pennetta (; born 25 February 1982) is an Italian former professional tennis player. She became Italy's first top-ten female singles player on 17 August 2009 and the first Italian to be ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis pla ...

, who lost to

Silvia Farina Elia Silvia Farina-Elia (; born 27 April 1972) is a former professional tennis player from Italy. She won three WTA singles titles, reached the quarterfinals of the 2003 Wimbledon Championships and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. ...

in the first round.

Seeds

Qualifying

Draw

Finals

Top half

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Bottom half

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Other entry information

Wild cards

Protected ranking

Qualifiers

Withdrawals

External links

2003 Australian Open – Women'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. there are 211 nat ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:2003 Australian Open - Women's Singles Women's singles Australian Open (tennis) by year – Women's singles 2003 in Australian women's sport