The 2024 Australian Open, which is the first Grand Slam of the new season, begins in mid-January. I previously wrote articles about the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. To complete the series, this article will focus on fun facts about the Australian Open.
The 2024 Australian Open will be the 112th edition of this prestigious tournament. All eyes will be on world number #1, Novak Djokovic, to see if he can with this tournament for an 11th time!
History of Australian Open
The Australian Open was first held in 1905. The tournament was initially known as the Australasian Championship, and then later, the Australian Championships. The name was changed in 1969 to the Australian Open. The tournament was initially held at the Warehouseman’s Cricket Ground in Melbourne, which today bears the name Albert Reserve Tennis Centre.
FUN FACT: The Australian Open has been held on hard courts for several decades, but the tournament has mostly been played on grass. From inception to 1988, the tournament was played on grass courts. The Australian Open has been held on hard courts since 1988.
FUN FACT: In the tournament’s early years, very few players from abroad came to play at the Australian Open because of the difficult journey required to travel to Australia. In the 1920s, for instance, a trip from Europe to Australia would take about 45 days by ship. Since Australia is a huge country, players from Australia also had a problem traveling to the tournament.
For instance, when the tournament was held in Perth, on Australia’s west coast, players on the east coast of Australia, over 2,000 miles away, did not make the journey to play in the tournament.
Many legendary players rarely played at this Grand Slam due to problems with traveling to Australia, such as René Lacoste, Manuel Santana, Bjorn Borg and Ilie Nastase. Nastase, from Romania, traveled to Australia only once, when he was already 35 years old. The players refused to come to Australia because of the distance, the small prize money and because, for a few years, the tournament was held around the time of the Christmas holidays.
The Australian Open was not held during the two world wars.
FUN FACT: Since its inception, this tournament has been held the most times (66) in Melbourne, the city where it is currently held. In the past, the tournament has been played in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. Twice, the Australian Open was even held in New Zealand.
In 1906, the Australian Open was held in the New Zealand city of Christchurch, and only 10 players participated in the tournament, only two of whom were from Australia. The title was won by a New Zealander, Tony Wilding, the best player in the world at the time. Unfortunately, Wilding died nine years later fighting in World War I.
Melbourne Park
In 1972, it was decided that the Australian Open should be regularly held in Melbourne, as this city attracted the greatest interest from players and fans. The tournament was played at Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club until 1988 when it was moved to its current location at Melbourne Park (which was previously known as Flinders Park). The first tournament at this location attracted over 260,000 fans, which was a drastic increase compared to the 140,000 fans the prior year. In addition to the location, this is when the surface was changed from grass to hard courts.
FUN FACT: Matts Wilander is the only player to win the Australian Open on both grass and hard courts. Wilander, from Sweden, won the Grand Slam three times in Australia.
The Melbourne Park tennis complex contains 33 hard courts. Until 2008, matches were played on the Rebound Ace hard surface, and then that surface was replaced by the Plexicushion acrylic hard surface. The largest stadium is the Rod Laver Arena and has a capacity of almost 15,000 seats. The course is named after the legendary Australian player who won the Australian Open three times.
FUN FACT: Rod Laver is the only player to win all four Grand Slams twice in one calendar year.
In addition to Rod Laver Arena, the next two largest stadiums are the John Cain Arena, currently known as the Melbourne Arena, which holds just over 10,000 fans, and another stadium named after a legendary player from Australia, the Margaret Court Arena, which holds 7,500 fans. These three stadiums all have a retractable roof that allows matches to be played indoors when it is raining or when there is extreme heat.
FUN FACT: The Australian Open is held during the summer in Australia, so temperatures can be very high. The Australian Open has an Extreme Heat Policy which requires outdoor matches to be stopped when the temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
Within Melbourne Park, in addition to the courts where the Australian Open matches are played, there are also six clay courts that are used for training. Every year during the tournament, around 50,000 balls are used. 360 boys and girls aged 12-15 are used as Ballkids. Fans consume approximately 160,000 ice creams during the Australian Open, while over 75,000 hot dogs are sold during the tournament.
Djokovic and Margaret Court are the most successful at the Australian Open
Novak Djokovic is the most successful male player in the history of the Australian Open. Djokovic, from Serbia, has won the tournament a record ten times. Behind Djokovic is his great rival, Roger Federer, who won the Australian Open six times.
FUN FACT: The trophy lifted by the men’s winner is named after a famous Australian tennis player, Norman Brookes. It is called the Norman Brooks Challenge Cup. The women’s champion receives a trophy named after Daphne Akhurst, a five-time Australian Open champion. It is called the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.
Credit: Martin Keep
FUN FACT: Rafael Nadal, who won the Australian Open twice, battled against Djokovic in the longest final match in the history of all Grand Slam tournaments at the 2012 Australian Open. Djokovic was victorious in a match that lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes and had a final score of 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7(5-7), 7-5.
Margaret Court is the most successful athlete at the Australian Open, as she won this Grand Slam and incredible 11 times, although two of these times she shared the title as the final match was canceled due to bad weather. Margaret Court had 64 Grand Slam titles, including 24 singles titles, 19 doubles titles and 21 mixed doubles titles.
Margaret Court
FUN FACT: Martina Hingis is the youngest champion to win the Australian Open as she won the 1997 tournament when she was just 16 years and four months old.
