The Australian Open witnessed plenty of shock results across the men’s and women’s events, although Jannik Sinner was certainly not a surprise winner.
Sinner has just three losses as number one, and continued his hard-court dominance by winning the Australian Open last month.
Madison Keys did, however, produce a huge upset by lifting the women’s Australian Open trophy, beating top two seeds Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
Further American WTA Grand Slam success could arrive later this year, with the French Open the next Grand Slam in the schedule.
And with four titles in the last five years, former world number one Swiatek is the undisputed leader on clay at this moment in time.
Four of those victories came in straight sets, but she still falls short of Steffi Graf’s stunning 1988 final performance.
The defending champion lost just 13 points in her meeting with Natasha Zvereva, with the German icon winning 6-0, 6-0.
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Graf’s 32-minute victory remains the fastest Grand Slam final win in the Open Era, and indeed the only double bagel in a major final since 1911.
The official match duration stood at 34 minutes, but a rain break resulted in only 32 minutes of action. Remarkably, top seed Graf didn’t drop a set during the entire 1988 French Open, losing just 20 games.
Her dominance on the court certainly didn’t end there, with the superstar going on to complete the Golden Slam that year by winning all four major titles and the Olympic gold medal.
The quickfire victory came amid a dominant French Open period for two female stars, with Graf’s meeting with Zvereva representing the first final since 1981 that either Martina Navratilova or Chris Evert were not involved.
The star duo even met each other on three occasions during that period, with Graf having then beaten Navratilova in the 1987 French Open final.
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The German enjoyed a dominant run of her own with four successive final appearances, but a hugely talented Monica Seles was also on the scene by that stage.
Graf’s stunning tournament in 1988, however, remains the most dominant, with a third major title going her way that year.
It was, of course, fully deserved, with the German having recorded a total of six bagel sets from her seven matches en route to the trophy, two of which Zvereva unfortunately experienced in the final.
It was also a sign of things to come for the Belarusian, who after that first ever meeting with Graf, ended her career with just one win from their 21 WTA matches.
That sole victory impressively came in the third round of Wimbledon in 1998, where Zvereva beat the fourth seed 6-4, 7-5 on her way to a superb semi-final finish.
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