Defending champions in the singles were Dominic Thiem for men and Naomi Ōsaka for women. In the men's doubles Mate Pavić and Bruno Soares and in the ladies doubles Laura Siegemund and Wera Swonarjowa were last year's winners. There were no defending champions in mixed , as a mixed competition in 2020 was not held due to the pandemic.
In Dominic Thiem's case, an injury to his right wrist that had not healed prevented him from defending his title. Roger Federer had to undergo knee surgery. Due to foot problems, both Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka canceled . Even Serena and Venus Williams were unable to participate due to injury and Sofia Kenin was SARS-CoV-2 tested positive.
After Novak Djokovic had won Grand Slam tournaments in a row already 2015/2016 four, he would achieve this with a victory in the season 2021 and also the tennis player in history with the most with 21 major individual titles Grand Slam victories will be able to .
The prize money has increased for each competition: singles, doubles, mixed doubles and wheelchair competition. In total, the record sum of US $ 57,462,000 will be paid out, of which US $ 40,560,000 will go to the main draw. Almost US $ 6 million were awarded in the qualification, which corresponds to an increase of 66% compared to 2019 and the prize money for the first round in the main draw was now US $ 75,000, an increase of 23% compared to 2020. From the semifinals, the Prize money lowered. The winner and winner now each received US $ 2.5 million instead of US $ 3 million as in 2019. A total of US $ 600,000 was distributed for the wheelchair users .
Dominic Thiem
Naomi Osaka
Mate Pavić Bruno Soares
Laura Siegemund Vera Swonaryova
Emma Raducanu
Rajeev Ram Joe Salisbury
Samantha Stosur Zhang Shuai
