The Australian Open is an annual tennis tournament played in the last two weeks of January. The tournament is the first of the 4 Grand Slam tennis tournaments that precede the French Open, Wimbledon, and the American Open every year.
Itincludes men’s and women’s singles; men’s tournaments, women’s, and mixed doubles, wheelchair championships, and friendly exhibitions. It has been played on grassy courts since 1988, but since that time there have been three different forms of hardcourt: the green-colored Rebound Ace until 2007, the blue Plexicushion until 2019, and the blue GreenSet since 2020.
The tournament was initially foundedas the AustralasianChampionships, then in 1927, it was changed to the Australian Championships. The name Australian Open has officially been in use ever since1969. Held for the first timein 1905, it has since become one of the largest athletics competitions in the southern hemisphere.
Where is the Australian Open?
The Australian Open has been staged in fiveAustralian towns since 1905: Adelaide, Brisbane,Melbourne, Sydney, Perth. It has so far been held55 times in Melbourne,17 times in Sydney,14 times in Adelaide, 7 times in Brisbantimes),3 times in Perth, while two New Zealand cities can also boast of hosting it,Christchurch(1906) andHastings(1912).
Melbourne was chosen to start hosting the tournament each year since 1972because it attracted the Australian city’s biggest patronage. Before it relocated to Melbourne Park in 1988, the tournament was held in the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club.
In order to satisfy the demands of a tournament, the out-of-capacityKooyong was replaced with theMelbourne Park facility (formerly Flinders Park). In 1988, there was a 90 percent growth in attendance in Melbourne Park(266,436) compared to the previous year at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club(140,000).