Australian Open
This article is about the Australian Open tennis tournament. For the Australian Open golf tournament, see Australian Open (golf).The
Australian Open tennis tournament is one of the four
Grand Slam tennis tournaments. It is held annually in
Melbourne, Australia.
It is chronologically the first of the world's four major tournaments which together constitute the Grand Slam. It now occurs during the last two weeks of
January but was formerly held in December.
Traditionally, accomplishing a slam is to win all four majors in a calendar year; recently tennis fans have adopted the shorthand of referring to each of the four parts of the Slam (Australian, French, Wimbledon and US Opens) as a slam in itself. The Australian
Rod Laver was the last man to complete a Grand Slam in men's singles in
1969. On the women's side,
Steffi Graf was the last woman to win a Grand Slam in
1988, and she also won the Olympic Gold in
Seoul in the same year, making it a
Golden Slam.
The tournament was held for the first time in
1905. Like the other three
Grand Slam events, it was contested by top-ranked amateur players and known as the
Australian championships until the advent of open tennis in 1968. Originally based at the grass courts at
Kooyong in the city of
Melbourne's inner south-east, the tournament was in danger of fading into irrelevance before being revived in the
1980s with a shift to
Melbourne Park, a new (
Rebound Ace)
hardcourt venue next to the
Melbourne Cricket Ground on the southern fringe of the central business district.
Like all the Grand Slam tournaments, there are men's and women's singles competitions, men's, women's, and mixed doubles, as well as junior and master's competitions.
Two tournaments were held in
1977; the first in January, the second in December. The tournament moved back to January in
1987, so no championship was decided in
1986.
 |
Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open. Rod Laver Arena, the centre court, in the background. |
The two main courts,
Rod Laver Arena, and
Vodafone Arena are unusual in that they feature movable roofs which can be shut in case of rain or extreme heat. It is the only Grand Slam tournament that can feature indoor play. However, Wimbledon have plans to build a retractable roof for Centre Court in 2009.
Held in the middle of the Australian summer, the Australian Open is famous for its notoriously hot days. An extreme-heat policy is often put into play when temperatures (and humidity) reach dangerous levels.
The current major sponsor of the Australian Open is the
Kia Motor Company.
Names of the winners are inscribed on the perpetual
trophy Cups.
*The Women's Singles winner is presented with the
Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.
*The Men's Singles winner is presented with the
Norman Brookes Challenge Cup.
The Australian Open is now managed by
Tennis Australia, formerly the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia (LTAA), and was first played at the Warehouseman's Cricket Ground in
St Kilda Road, Melbourne. 2006 was the 94nd staging of the event (over a 101 year period due to interruption of the War years), with the tournament celebrating its Centenary in 2005.
The tournament was first played in 1905 as The Australasian Championships, became the Australian Championships in 1927 and the Australian Open in 1969. Since 1905, the Championships have been staged at six different venues as follows: Melbourne (50 times),
Sydney (17 times),
Adelaide (14 times),
Brisbane (eight times),
Perth (three times), and
New Zealand (twice) in 1906 and 1912.
In 1972, it was decided to stage the Tournament in the one city each year, as opposed to visiting various states across the nation, and the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club was selected due to Melbourne attracting the biggest patronage.
Melbourne Park (formerly Flinders Park) was constructed in time for the 1988 Open to meet the demands of the evolving tournament that had outgrown Kooyong's capacity. The move to Melbourne Park was an immediate success, with a 90 per cent increase in attendance in 1988 (266,436) on the previous year at Kooyong (140,000).
Recent Attendances
*
2006 - 550,550 [
1]
*
2005 - 543,873 [
2]
*
2004 - 521,691 [
3]
See: Australian Open records and triviaMain article:
List of Australian Open champions*
Men's Singles*
Women's Singles*
Men's Doubles*
Women's Doubles*
Mixed Doubles*
Official Site*
Tennis Australia website*
Satellite image of the venue (Google Maps)
