Australian Open

General information

All competitions of the Australian Open tournament are held in Melbourne (Australia). The tournament lasts 2 weeks. Matches start at the end of January and end in early February. Winners are identified in 9 categories: 5 — for adults and 4 — for juniors.
Tennis Australia is the organizer of the event. All athletes meet at the Melbourne Park Sports complex.

History

The first match was held in 1905. Then the tournament was called differently – «Australasia Championship». 17 athletes tried their hand. And the final of the competition gathered 5,000 spectators. The name of the tournament was changed back in 1927 to the «Australian Championship». Since 1968, professional tennis players have been actively participating in the meetings. Since then, the tournament has been called the Australian Open Tennis Championship.
Tournaments were held in different places: in Melbourne, in New Zealand, in Adelaide, in Perth, in Sydney and in Brisbane.
But in 1972, the organizers decided not to look for new places anymore. Melbourne became the venue for the competition. The grass courts of the Kuyong Club were perfect for this purpose. But the competitions gathered a huge audience every year. It was necessary to look for a new place. And since 1988, it has been decided to hold all meetings in Melbourne Park.
The move was connected not only with the increased popularity of the championship, but also with the professionalization of tennis. Then the athletes’ meeting fell on New Year and Christmas. Many famous athletes, for example, Chris Evert (American tennis player), Bjorn Borg (Swedish athlete), either missed the competition, or did not participate at all. In this regard, the winners of the tournaments were little-known tennis players who would hardly have been able to win if famous athletes had come here. Since 1977, the tournament has been held at the junction of November and December. After 10 years (in 1987), matches began to be held in late January — early February.

There are 6 courts in Melbourne Park: 3 central and 3 show courts.
Rod Laver Arena (named after the Australian tennis player of the same name) is considered the most important. It was built in 1988. It is designed for 15,000 spectators. The sliding roof allows you to hold meetings in any weather.
The second Melbourne Park Multi-Purpose Venue court appeared in 2000. It’s easy to transform. The arena hosts not only meetings of tennis players, but also volleyball and basketball games.
In 2003, the third court was named after Margaret Court.
All sites have a Plexicushion hard surface.

Records

Australian athlete Margaret Court has won Grand Slam tournaments 62 times. She was rightfully called the First Racket of the world.
Australian Adrian Quist won 13 times from 1936 to 1950.