Australian Open

The contest Australian Open is a tennis tournament in Australia. It is the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments of the year and is discharged in January in the second largest city in Australia, Melbourne.

The game is played since 1988 at Melbourne Park, which was designed specifically for this sporting event and offers a total of 24 hard courts over an area of ​​20 hectares. The two largest are the places equipped with sunroofs stages Rod Laver Arena ( 14,820 spectators ) and the Hisense Arena (until 2008: Vodafone Arena) (10,000 seats, cost: 41 million euros ). With larger grandstands also the show Courts 1-3 are equipped with the show court No.. 1 since 2003 has the official name of Margaret Court Arena and over 6,000 seating capacity.

The Australian Open is the biggest regular sporting event on the Australian continent. 2010 were more than 650,000 viewers in the two weeks of the tournament. If the individual finals will be played, the audience share is usually from seventy to eighty percent.

History

In 1904 the Australasian Lawn Tennis Association was founded with the participation of Australia and New Zealand to align the Australasian championships and participate in the Davis Cup. In November 1905, the first championship of Australia and New Zealand at the Warehouseman 's Cricket Ground in Albert Park was held at Melbourne, attended by 17 men. In the first final Rodney Heath won against Dr. Arthur Curtis in front of around 5,000 spectators.

In subsequent years, the venue for the Championships alternated between Australia and New Zealand. In 1922, New Zealand withdrew from the partnership. Then, the tournament was renamed in Australian championships (although not until 1927 ). After Sydney ( 17 times ), Adelaide ( 14 times ), Brisbane ( eight times ), Perth ( three times) and two sweeps in New Zealand (1906 and 1912 ) followed 1972, the final move to Melbourne.

Since 1922, the women's singles, women's doubles and the mixed competition (not 1970-1986 ) discharged. The tournament fell from 1916 to 1918 and from 1941 to 1945 due to the world wars. The first final was won by Margaret Molesworth. The rest of the year dominated Daphne Akhurst who won five individual titles. After her death at the age of 29 years the trophy in the women's singles Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup was named. The winning competition in the single men received the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup.

In the 1960's years, Margaret Smith Court and Rod Laver expressed their mark on the tournament. Court won a total of eleven times, the individual titles, eight times the doubles title four times and the mixed trophy. In 1970 she had her climax by winning the Grand Slam. Laver achieved the only player to the Grand Slam twice, in 1962 and 1969. Doing so, he won the Australian Open three times in singles.

In 1969, the tournament was renamed the open and in the Australian Open. 1973 Melbourne's Kooyong became a solid venue. Kooyong was until January 1987, the venue for the Australian Open. Until 1977 the tournament was held in January, then changed the date to December, so that in 1977 the tournament was held twice. In 1986, a tournament was held, because from 1987 again played in January and the appointment exchanged with the master. From 1988 ( the park renamed in 1997 in Melbourne ) was first in Flinders Park played. At the same time the playing surface was changed: then was that the new line on hard court - called Rebound Ace courts - and no longer played on grass. In 2008 they changed the type of hard court covering, rather than on Rebound Ace playing since Plexicushion - on hard courts.

Recent Australian winners were Mark Edmondson (1976 ) and Chris O'Neil (1978). Edmondson was at the time of his victory, only the number 212 in the world rankings. No other player managed to date a Grand Slam victory with such a low ranking.

Steffi Graf won here in 1988 in the final against Chris Evert as a prelude to her Golden Slam. It was the first final of a Grand Slam tournament, which took place under the roof closed. 2003 and 2005 to 2007 this was again the case.

Records

Men ( before 1968 ):

• In all competitions: Jack Crawford (Australia ): 11 (4 singles, 4 doubles, 3 Mixed)
• Single: Roy Emerson ( Australia ): 6 Individual titles in a row: Roy Emerson ( Australia ): 5

• Doubles title in a row: Adrian Quist (Australia ): 10

Men ( after 1968 ):

• In all competitions: Bob Bryan (USA), Mike Bryan (USA): 6 each ( each 6 Double)
• Singles: Andre Agassi (USA), Roger Federer ( Switzerland ), Novak Djokovic (Serbia ): 4 ever Individual titles in a row: Novak Djokovic (Serbia ): 3

• Doubles title in a row: Bob Bryan (USA), Mike Bryan (USA): 3 per

Women ( before 1968 ):

• In all competitions: Margaret Smith Court (Australia ): 22 ( 11 singles, 7 doubles, 4 mixed)
• Single: Margaret Smith Court (Australia ): 11 (including 7 pre-1968 ) Individual titles in a row: Margaret Smith Court (Australia ): 7

• Doubles title in a row: Thelma Coyne Long ( Australia), Nancye Wynne Bolton (Australia): the 5

Women ( after 1968 ):

• In all competitions: Martina Navratilova (Czech Republic / USA ): 12 ( 3 single, 8 double, 1 Mixed)
• Single: Serena Williams (USA): 5 Individual titles in a row: Margaret Smith Court (Australia), Evonne Goolagong - Cawley (Australia), Steffi Graf ( Germany ), Monica Seles (USA), Martina Hingis ( Switzerland ): each 3

• Doubles title in a row: Martina Navratilova (Czech Republic / USA), Pam Shriver (USA): 7 each

List of winners

• List of Australian Open champion ( men's singles )
• List of Australian Open champion ( women's singles )
• List of Australian Open champion ( men's doubles )
• List of Australian Open champion ( women's doubles )
• List of Australian Open champion ( Mixed)