Victoria Azarenka wins Australian Open women's title, takes over No. 1

She won the 2012 Australian Open singles title, becoming the first Belarusian player to win a Grand Slam in singles. With this win, she became the first player ever to go from No. 3 to No. 1 by skipping No. 2. Her other achievements include winning two mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, the 2007 US Open with Max Mirnyi and the 2008 French Open with Bob Bryan.

"It's a dream come true," she said. "I have been dreaming and working so hard to win the Grand Slam, and being No. 1 is pretty good bonus. Just the perfect ending and the perfect position to be in.

Victoria Azarenka , born 31 July 1989 , is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She is the current World No. 1 as of January 30, 2012.

At age 14, Azarenka moved to Scottsdale, Arizona from Minsk, Belarus, to train. In this she was aided by National Hockey League goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and his wife, who is a friend of Azarenka's mother. In 2010 she briefly considered a break from the sport of Tennis to focus on education however after a conversation with her 'inspiring' grandmother she decided to continue playing. It is the inspiration from her grandmother that is regarded as the key for her continued developments in the sport.

Azarenka won her first tournament of the year by winning 2012 Apia International Sydney where she was the third seed. Azarenka defeated her first three opponents, Stefanie Voegele, Jelena Jankovic and Marion Bartoli all in straight sets to advance to the semifinals where she defeated the seventh seed, Agnieszka Radwańska in three sets 1–6, 6–3, 6–2 to reach the final, where she defeated the defending champion Li Na in three sets 6–2, 1–6, 6–3.

Azarenka competed at the 2012 Australian Open as the third seed, defeating Heather Watson, Casey Dellacqua, Mona Barthel and Iveta Benesova in the first four rounds without dropping a set, losing just 10 games and winning 48. In the quarterfinals,

 Azarenka faced a sterner test against World No. 8 Agnieszka Radwanska, and lost the opening set on a tie-break before coming back strongly, losing just two futher games en route to a 6–7, 6–0, 6–2 win. In the semi-finals, she defeated the eleventh seed and defending champion Kim Clijsters 6–4, 1–6, 6–3 to reach her first Grand Slam singles final where she faced the World No. 4 and 2008 Australian Open champion, Maria Sharapova, conqueror of 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová in the other semi-final. In a nervous start to the final, Azarenka lost the opening two games of the match, and was within two points of trailing 0–3 after Sharapova took the first two points of the third game.

 Azarenka came back to hold serve, however, and took the next two games to establish a 3–2 lead, before her opponent held serve to level the score at 3–3. This would prove to be Sharapova's last service hold in the match, as Azarenka then proceeded to win all of the next nine games (breaking the Sharapova serve on four consecutive occasions), to record an emphatic 6–3, 6–0 victory. Unusually, due to the earlier quarter-final defeat of Caroline Wozniacki by Clijsters in the same tournament, whichever of the finalists triumphed in Melbourne would gain sufficient points to replace Wozniacki at the top of the Women's rankings. Azarenka thus recorded her first Grand Slam singles title and became the Women's World No1 (with effect from the 30th January 2012) in the same match.

Azarenka has been criticized by different individuals, including commentators and ex-professionals, for the noise she makes when hitting the ball. During the 2010 Australian Open quarterfinal between Azarenka and Serena Williams, ex-pro Pam Shriver, who was providing court-side commentary, noted that Azarenka's screams were so long that she was still yelling when Williams returned the ball. She has also been noted for her tendency to lose her temper during matches. In Wimbledon 2011 she grunted at 95 decibels,which caused the chief executive of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club Ian Ritchie to raise the issue with the press. He issued the following statement – "Officials would prefer to see less grunting". Her average screams were recorded to last 1.5 seconds.

Novak Djokovic wins the longest Grand Slam final in history... 2012 Men's Final

He is writing the history of Serbian tennis in gold letters. He has laid down the foundations for a new, brighter future of the grand sport played in our country. When only 16 years of age he achieved impressive results that many older players would be envious of. Four years later he came tantalisingly close to the top by becoming world no.3. On Monday, July 4, 2011, a day after he had won his first Wimbledon, he realised his life dream - he became THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD! Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic  born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player who has been ranked World No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) since 4 July 2011. He has won five Grand Slam singles titles: the 2008, 2011 and 2012 Australian Open, the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2011 US Open. By winning three Majors in 2011, Djokovic became the sixth male player in the open era to win three Majors in a calendar year. He is the first male player representing Serbia to win a Major singles title and the youngest player in the open era to have reached the semifinals of all four Grand Slam events, separately and consecutively. Amongst other titles, he won the Tennis Masters Cup in 2008 and was also on the team which won the 2010 Davis Cup.

 I shall never forget the day when a four year old boy came to my tennis camp with a bag neatly packed, as if for professional training. I asked him who packed it for him, and he replied he did it himself. When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, without hesitation he said: “number one in the world”, the same answer I was given many years ago by Monika Seles when she was a little girl - said the legend of Yugoslav tennis, Jelena Gencic.

This took place in the Kopaonik tennis camp, whose head coach at the time was Jelena Gencic, and the boy was none other than Novak Djokovic.

The Djokovics can be said to be a family of sportsmen and women. As a boy Srdjan put on a pair of skis in Zvecane, where he lived at the time, and then went on to compete for a number of years on the white slopes. His life changed in 1984 when he finished the skiing academy and began work as an instructor in the prestigious ‘Genex’ school in Kopaonik. It was there one winter that he met a beautiful and slender ski instructor Dijana, a recent DIF graduate. People started seeing Srdjan and Dijana together on the slopes with increasing frequency. It was the shared love of the mountain and the white pistes which brought them together. Forever!

Nole is having a historic 2011 season on the ATP World Tour. He’s become the new king of tennis

Two months later, Novak lifted his first US Open trophy, becoming just the sixth men in the Open era to win three majors in a season, joining Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Mats Wilander, Jimmy Connors and Rod Laver.

On July 4, one day after he had realised his dream by winning the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world - Wimbledon, he was officially crowned the 25th player to rank no.1 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, which has been his ambition and goal since he started playing tennis.

By the end of September, he has won ten ATP titles (Australian Open, Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami, Belgrade, Madrid, Rome, Wimbledon, Montreal and US Open).

He has become the first man ever to win five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophies in the same year. 

The Serbian star is also the first men's player to win a tournament in his no.1 debut since Pete Sampras did it in 1993.

Nole had an impressive winning streak - 43 matches won in a row overall (41 this season), dating back to the Davis Cup finals in December, that ended in Roland Garros semi-final when he lost to Roger Federer.

Novak completed a run that is unmatched among active players. Only Guillermo Vilas with 46 straight victories in 1977, and Ivan Lendl with 44 from 1981-82 had longer streaks.

To win more than fourty straight matches on different surfaces, in different conditions, against top players is absolutely fantastic, historic achievement. Nole went a half year without losing, clinched seven, of the 43 victories, over Nadal and Federer.

Everyone has their idol, and so does Novak Djokovic. His choice is American Pete Sampras (“I like his serve and behaviour on-court!"), one of the best players of all time, and lately he has mentioned Andre Agassi as an inspiration. He speaks Serbian, English and German. His favourite surface is hard-court. In those rare moments of free time, Novak likes surfing the net, watching films, listening to relaxing music, and sometimes he even manages to find time to go out with friends and his best friend Vuk. He likes home-cooked food, salads and fruit juices. From mid-2006 Nole has been coached by the Slovak Marian Vajda, and this collaboration has proved to be - a big hit!