{"id":442677,"date":"2026-02-01T11:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T11:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/442677\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T11:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T11:21:11","slug":"novak-djokovics-2012-australian-open-racket-sells-for-record-540000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/442677\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic\u2019s 2012 Australian Open racket sells for record $540,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Novak<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic adjusts his racket during the final match of the 2012 Australian Open. Ryan Pierse \/ AFP pool via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jan. 31, 2026Updated Feb. 1, 2026 12:12 am EST<\/p>\n

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Australian Open men\u2019s singles final <\/a>between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic<\/a> holds the crown for the most Grand Slam men\u2019s tennis titles and now holds the crown for the most expensive tennis memorabilia item ever sold publicly.<\/p>\n

The tennis racket Djokovic used during the 2012 Australian Open final, when he beat Rafael Nadal in the longest Grand Slam final in history (five hours, 53 minutes), sold for $540,000<\/a> through SCP Auctions on Saturday night. SCP\u2019s pre-auction estimate on it was $200,000-plus.<\/p>\n

This sale occurred on the cusp of Djokovic\u2019s 38th Grand Slam final, and possible 25th Grand Slam championship, when the 38-year-old great faces Carlos Alcaraz in the 2026 Australian Open final set to begin 3:30 a.m. ET Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"Close-up<\/p>\n

\n Novak Djokovic\u2019s 2012 Australian Open final racket. (SCP Auctions)<\/p>\n

The Djokovic racket passed an autographed Alcaraz trading card<\/a> to become the highest-priced tennis item sold at auction. Alcaraz\u2019s 2022 NetPro Premium one-of-one autographed rookie card with a Gem-Mint 10 grade from Professional Sports Authenticator sold for $237,907.32 through Goldin on June 28.<\/p>\n

The previous all-time racket sale occurred in October when an Alcaraz racket used in the 2023 Wimbledon finals sold via auction for $173,000 through Prestige. The previous record for any Djokovic racket was for one used during his 2016 French Open final win over Andy Murray, which sold for $107,000 in November 2023 through SCP.<\/p>\n

According to SCP, Djokovic\u2019s racket has been professionally photomatched to championship point in the final as well as his semifinal match against Murray and quarterfinal match against David Ferrer.<\/p>\n

The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our coverage. When you click or make purchases through our links, we may earn a commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic adjusts his racket during the final match of the 2012 Australian Open. Ryan Pierse \/ AFP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[17801,99,1794,428],"class_list":["post-442677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-memorabilia-collectibles","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}