#1 - Novak Djokovic
Pre-tournament ATP ranking: 1
Result: WINNER
Grade: A+
Novak Djokovic executed two weeks of near-perfect tennis this January, maintaining the possibility of a โNovak Slam' in 2016.
Djokovic dropped only three sets all tournament โ two against Simon in the fourth round, and one against Federer in the semis.
What is even more impressive is that on the way to his sixth Australian Open title, he had to fight his way through FIVE seeds, and six players in the top-52 in the world.
Will this be the year he finally wins all four majors?
#2 โ Andy Murray
Pre-tournament ATP ranking: 2
Result: Finalist
Grade: A-
It seems almost unfair to give the guy who lost to Novak Djokovic in the final an a minus. However, we're all acutely aware of Andy Murray's history at this Slam, and his fifth loss in the final to this man is not good enough.
It seems to be the same story every time for Andy โ Novak comes flying out of the blocks, Andy beats himself up for the rest of the match whilst clinging to life and his attitude translates to the court, resulting in yet another important loss.
Now without Ivan Lendl in his corner, it's reasonable to wonder whether or not Murray will ever regain the mental fortitude required to win another Slam. Let's hope he does, because he has all the other tools to do so.
#3 โ Roger Federer
Pre-tournament ATP ranking: 3
Result: Semi-finalist
Grade: A
Roger Federer looked to be cruising his way through The Open, and looked as focused as ever on winning his 18th Slam. Then he ran into Novak Djokovic.
Federer had only dropped 1 set in the tournament before his four-set loss to Novak, and had similarly played top-50 players almost all the way through the tournament.
However, in the semi-finals, Djokovic was just too good for the FedExpress, reminding us all just how far the pack is behind the leader.
#4 โ Stan Warwinka
Pre-tournament ATP ranking: 4
Result: Fourth round
Grade: B-
Despite flying through the first three rounds, Stan Warwinka was the unlucky top-fiver to draw Milos Raonic in the fourth round.
Warwinka had not played a seed nor dropped a set at the Australian Open until he met Raonic and quickly found himself in a two-set hole.
Whilst he fought back valiantly to take it to five, Raonic held his nerve and won 6-3 in the fifth. For a former champion, not even making the finals is simply not good enough.
#5 โ Rafael Nadal
Pre-tournament ATP ranking: 5
Result: First round
Grade: F
Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco have played out some classic encounters at Melbourne Park before, but almost no one in the stadium expected this one to go the way it did.
Nadal had plenty of chances in the first set to wrap the match up in what would've been three sets, but he slipped and let his countryman take the first 8-6 in a tiebreaker.
Despite leading 2 sets to 0, Nadal could not hold his nerve, dropping the last two and leaving the Aussie Open in the first round for the first ever time.
#6 โ David Ferrer
Pre-tournament ATP ranking: 8
Result: Quarter-finalist
Grade: B+
David Ferrer is always the guy who is there at the end but never quite good enough to win the Slams.
It was the same old act again this year, when he reached the quarter-final, only to fall to Andy Murray.
Despite putting up a noble fight against the world number 2, winning a tiebreak set 7-5, Ferrer was just not good enough in the end โ as is the story of his career.
#7 โ Kei Nishikori
Pre-tournament ATP ranking: 7
Result: Quarter-finalist
Grade: B+
Despite the talk about whether or not Kei Nishikori could repeat his heroics from the 2014 US Open, he ended up just another of Novak Djokovic's unfortunate three-set victims.
Nishikori did not have the friendliest draw, forcing his way through seeded and formerly seeded players such as Philipp Kohlscreiber, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, but got the unfortunate draw of Novak in the quarters.
Nishikori had the best year of his career last year, and will be looking to equal and break career-best performances in slams this year, which he has already done at the 2016 AO.
#8 โ Tomas Berdych
Pre-tournament ATP ranking: 6
Result: Quarter-finalist
Grade: B+
Tomas Berdych was unable to repeat his 2015 Australian Open semi-final appearance this year around, running into Roger Federer a round earlier than he would've liked to.
Despite impressive performances defeating Nick Kyrgios and Roberto Bautista-Agut, he was unable to take a set off the Swiss Maestro, going down 7-6, 6-2, 6-4.
In losing 360 rankings points by not reaching the semi-finals again, he has fallen from 6th to 8th, making him the biggest faller inside the top-10 this week.
#9 โ Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Pre-tournament ATP ranking: 10
Result: Fourth round
Grade: C+
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be disappointed in failing to even take a set off Kei Nishikori in his fourth round loss at Melbourne Park.
Considering a fairly tame draw leading up to his fourth round matchup with Nishikori, one would've picked the match to maybe even go to five sets.
Instead, the man from Le Mans went down in order, losing 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. By virtue of last year's absence, he gained 180 rankings points, good enough to elevate him above countryman Richard Gasquet into 9th in the world.
#10 โ Richard Gasquet - absent
