Australian Open

The Australian Open is a major tennis tournament held annually over the last fortnight of January in Melbourne, Australia. First held in 1905, the tournament is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events of the year – the other three being the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. It features men's and women's singles; men's, women's and mixed doubles and junior's championships; as well as wheelchair, legends and exhibition events. Prior to 1988 the tournament had been played on grass. Since 1988 two types of hardcourt surfaces have been used at Melbourne Park – green Rebound Ace to 2007 and blue Plexicushion from 2008.

The Australian Open typically has high attendance, second only to the US Open. It was also the first Grand Slam tournament to feature indoor play during wet weather or extreme heat with its three primary courts, the Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena and the refurbished Margaret Court Arena equipped with retractable roofs.

History

The Australian Open is managed by Tennis Australia, formerly the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia (LTAA), and was first played at the Warehouseman's Cricket Ground in Melbourne in 1905. This facility is now known as the Albert Reserve Tennis Centre.

1970 Australian Open

The 1970 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on Grass courts at the White City Stadium in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia from 19 to 27 January. It was the 58th edition of the Australian Open, the 16th held in Sydney, and the first Grand Slam of the year. Margaret Smith Court's win in the singles was the first step towards her achieving a Grand Slam.

Tournament

Encouraged by Rod Laver's 1969 Grand Slam, Margaret Court successfully began her own Grand Slam campaign at the White City Stadium in Sydney, winning the Australian Open title without dropping a single set. She defeated fellow Australian Kerry Melville in the final 6–1, 6–3. Although the advent of the Open Era meant tournaments were now open to all tennis players the 1970 Australian Open men's competition was depleted by the absence of the world class players Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Andrés Gimeno, Pancho Gonzales, Roy Emerson and Fred Stolle. All these professional players were signed to the National Tennis League and were banned from entering the Australian Open because the financial guarantees were deemed unsatisfactory. The men's draw still had its memorable matches, not least in the quarterfinal when Dennis Ralston defeated local hero John Newcombe 19–17, 20–18, 4–6, 6–3 in the longest match (in games) in Australian Open history. The men's singles final between American Arthur Ashe and Australian Dick Crealy resulted in with Ashe winning his first and only Australian Open title in straight sets 6–4, 9–7, 6–2. The result was particularly rewarding for Ashe as he had lost in the 1966 and 1967 finals. Ashe was the first non-Australian to win the title since Alex Olmedo beat Neale Fraser in 1959.

2000 Australian Open

The 2000 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne in Australia. It was the 88th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 17 through 30 January 2000.

Both Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Martina Hingis were unsuccessful in their title defences, both being defeated in the final matches by Andre Agassi and Lindsay Davenport respectively. For Agassi, it was the second of four Australian Open titles, and for Davenport it was her final Grand Slam title.

Former champions

The following are the former Grand Slam champions in the draw:

Andre Agassi ('95 Australian, '99 French, '92 Wimbledon, '94 and '99 US Open)

Michael Chang ('89 French)

Jim Courier ('91-'92 French, '92-'93 Australian)

Yevgeny Kafelnikov ('99 Australian, '96 French)

Richard Krajicek ('96 Wimbledon)

Gustavo Kuerten ('97 French)

Pete Sampras ('94 and '97 Australian, '93-'95 and '97-'99 Wimbledon, '90 & '93 & '95-'96 US Open)

The following are former Grand Slam finalists in the draw:

Australian Open (disambiguation)

The Australian Open is an annual grand-slam tennis tournament.

Australian Open may also refer to:

Australian Open (squash)

The Australian Squash Open is an annual squash tournament that takes place at the National Convention Centre in Canberra in August. The tournament has been held since 1980 and was held in Canberra from 2010 to 2014.

Past Results

Men's

Women's

References

External links

Australian Goldfields Open

The Australian Goldfields Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament. The reigning champion is John Higgins.

History

Australia had previously hosted the 1971 and 1975 World Snooker Championships, as well as several other high profile snooker tournaments and in 1979 the Australian Masters was established. There was an attempt to turn the event into a ranking tournament in 1989 but the sponsorship fell through so it was staged in Hong Kong instead, as the Hong Kong Open, which incidentally became the first ranking tournament to be staged in Asia. The Hong Kong event was discontinued after just one year, but returned to Australia in 1994 as the Australian Open. The tournament reverted to being called the Australian Masters for the following season, but was dropped from the calendar after the 1995 event. In 2011 the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association resurrected the event under the Australian Goldfields Open name and added it to the 2011/2012 calendar.