During the 2015 Australian Open, numerous feats were witnessed, such as Novak Djokovic taking home his fifth Australian Open title, Serena Williams winning her 19th Grand Slam and Rafael Nadal feeling “dizzy” during his second round match and going on to win. All these contributed to what was considered a great tournament, however, one achievement that took place off the courts was the social media reaction to all these events.
Throughout the tournament, fans amazingly tweeted over five million times about the tournament or their favourite player. The handle for the official Twitter account of the Australian Open gained 80,000 new followers come the end of the competition. The Australian Open account was constantly tweeting about popular Twitter users which included respective winners Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams.
Game, set, match @serenawilliams 6-3 7-6(5) for her SIXTH #ausopen & 19th GS title. Remarkable achievement. pic.twitter.com/Qa0oG9vL9M
— Australian Open (@AustralianOpen) January 31, 2015
Players also continued to tweet throughout the whole tournament. Novak Djokovic continuously tweeted as the tournament progressed. This tweet by Djokovic was shared to show his spirit and great mentality after a win. His tweet also contained the #AusOpen which was a staple of the tournament.
Determination. Focus. Spirit. #AUSOpen pic.twitter.com/W1u5Dz1qaY — Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) January 16, 2015
Twitter was able to gain a stronger influence over the tournament with interesting kiosks that were scattered around the grounds. These Kiosks, which boasted the slogan “Tweet for a Treat”, were able to trade in small snacks for Tweets.
Tweet for a Treat vending machine open 4 business @ the Social Shack. Our 1st customer: @missy_karen#ausopen#prizespic.twitter.com/6bay06veQs
— Australian Open (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2015
The most retweeted tweet with the hashtag #Ausopen came from popular tweeter @Jnarls. His tweet was a music video that exclaimed the readiness and ambition the city had when preparing for the Australian Open. This tweet, which was retweeted over 12,000 times, showed the eagerness of the Twitter community for the tennis competition before a ball had been hit. It also shows that Twitter was fully engaged and ready to be more than just an outlet for news but wanted to a part of the competition. This trend quickly snowballed into a frenzy that resulted in the #AusOpen hashtag being used over 800,000 times. Twitter’s stamp on the Australian Open is being deemed a major accomplishment which other tournaments and companies will seek to replicate with their events.
“Every Champion Was Once a Contender That Refused to Give-Up.” #AUSOPEN#ESPNhttps://t.co/nOrI99b6iU
— James Parkley (@jnarls) January 19, 2015
The Australian Open is the first major tournament of the year with great tournaments such as Wimbledon, the French Open, and the U.S Open all remaining in the calendar year. The Twitter revolution which took place at the Australian Open will likely be analysed in an attempt to create similar social media explosions around the world.
Finally, here is Kokkinaki’s epic celebration in his first round win as seen on Twitter:
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” lang=”en”><p>How would you caption this epic celebration from Kokkinakis' late night Australian Open victory? <a href=”https://t.co/4MR9w7RT6G”>https://t.co/4MR9w7RT6G</a></p>— ESPNTennis (@ESPNTennis) <a href=”https://twitter.com/ESPNTennis/status/557151098444988416″>January 19, 2015</a></blockquote>
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