X-Nico

18 unusual facts about Australian Open


1997 in sumo

To mark 100 years of trade relations between Japan and Australia a tour by top division wrestlers visits Melbourne on the 6th and 7th, where an exhibition tournament is held at Melbourne Park (home of the Australian Open), and Sydney on the 13th and 14th, at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

2007 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Doubles

The French duo won their first Grand Slam as a team, however this was Llodra's third, having won the Australian Open twice previously with Fabrice Santoro in 2003 and 2004.

2009 ASB Classic

This was consistent with the surface change that was also implemented at the Australian Open.

Alberto Martín

Martín suffered the heaviest defeat in the history of the Australian Open.

Björn Rehnquist

Rehnquist had an outstanding junior career, winning the Australian Open Boys' Singles in 1996 and reaching as high as No. 3 in the world in singles the same year (and No. 7 in doubles).

The Swede competed in the 2006 Australian Open, losing to 20th seed Radek Štěpánek 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, and at the 2009 Australian Open, but lost in the first round 6-0, 6-2, 6-2 to eventual semi-finalist Andy Roddick.

Colin Gregory

Doctor John Colin Gregory (28 July 1903 – 10 January 1959) was an amateur British tennis player, best remembered for winning the Australian Open in 1929.

Glenferrie Road

The Kooyong Tennis Stadium, the original home of the Australian Open, is located on Glenferrie Road, as are the Toorak Campus of Deakin University and the biggest campus of the Swinburne University of Technology.

Longest tennis match records

However, among the Grand Slams, only the US Open uses the tiebreak in the final set; the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and Olympic tennis instead use the advantage set rules in the final set – in such a set there can be an indefinite number of games until there is a winner.

Major professional tennis tournaments before the Open Era

The Championships at Wimbledon, the US Championships, the French Championships, and the Australian Championships were typically the top events, where amateur players could compete for the title, albeit without prize money.

Mallika Bajaj

Bajaj has also appeared as a sportscaster at the 2010 Australian Open tennis tournament, followed by a broadcast of the Australian Football League (AFL), and she has written for Advantage Tennis.

Martin Wostenholme

Wostenholme was the first Canadian to win a match at each of the four Grand Slam events, reaching the second rounds of the 1985 U.S. Open, the 1986 French Open and Wimbledon Championships, and the 1990 Australian Open.

Pete Sampras Tennis

So, in order to win the Australian Open (the season opener) one must first complete a season first.

Rod Laver Arena

Rod Laver Arena is a tennis stadium that is part of the Melbourne Park complex located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and has been the main venue for the Australian Open in tennis since 1988, replacing the ageing Kooyong Stadium.

Top Players' Tennis

In single-player mode, the player may compete in the four Grand Slams: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.

Westside Tennis Club

The club is unique in that it offers courts of all the Grand Slam surfaces: Rebound Ace (Australian Open), red clay (French Open), grass (Wimbledon), and DecoTurf (US Open).

World Covered Court Championships

The WCCC tournament was disbanded by the ILTF when the Australasian Championships was upgraded to major status for the start of 1924, as well as the United States Lawn Tennis Association (and with it, the US Championships to official major status) joining the governing body of the ILTF, also in 1924.

World Tennis Challenge

The World Tennis Challenge is a three night exhibition tournament held in the week before the Australian Open in Adelaide, South Australia.


1991 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament

The singles line up was headlined by Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) No. 3, Australian Open runner-up, Philadelphia and Memphis winner Ivan Lendl, reigning Rome champion, ATP Comeback Player of the Year Thomas Muster, and Estoril titlist Emilio Sánchez.

2000 Indian Wells Masters

The men singles draw was headlined by ATP No. 1, Australian Open titlist, Masters Cup finalist, 1995 runner-up Andre Agassi, Masters Cup winner, 1995 Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras and Australian Open runner-up Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

2005 Pacific Life Open

Also competing in the field were Australian Open titlist Marat Safin, 2004 French Open winner Guillermo Coria, Tim Henman, Carlos Moyá and Gastón Gaudio.

The women's draw featured WTA No. 1, Australian Open runner-up and 2000 Indian Wells winner Lindsay Davenport, Antwerp champion, Olympic Silver Medalist Amélie Mauresmo and Tokyo, Qatar titlist, 2004 Wimbledon winner Maria Sharapova.

2007 Rogers Cup

The men's singles featured World No. 1, Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, French Open winner and Stuttgart titlist Rafael Nadal, and new ATP No. 3 and Miami Masters champion Novak Djokovic.

2008 Grand Prix Hassan II

The main draw was led by Australian Open runner-up and Sydney doubles champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 2007 Bucharest semifinalist Gaël Monfils, and Houston quarterfinalist Agustín Calleri.

2009 Roger Federer tennis season

In addition, Federer made two other Grand Slam finals, Australian Open losing to Rafael Nadal, and the US Open, losing to Juan Martín del Potro.

2010 Malaysian Open

Other participants include recent Australian Open semi-finalists, World No. 10 Li Na and World No. 20 Zheng Jie and last years Wimbledon quarter-finalist and Family Circle Cup champion, Sabine Lisicki.

Andrea Glass

Her highest WTA singles ranking is 53rd, which she reached on 1 February 1999, the year in which she reached the third round of the Australian Open, where Anna Kournikova beat her 4-6 6-2 6-3.

Anousjka van Exel

She won a total of 11 ITF titles during her career and reached a doubles ranking high of world number 100 in May 2002 after reaching the third round of the women's doubles at the Australian Open earlier that year.

Bobby Locke

In 1955 he won the Australian Open held at Gailes Golf Club in Queensland; he later rated this as one of the best courses he had ever played.

Clinton Grybas

He continued to cover many different sports included the Australian Open, boxing and both the Formula One and MotoGP Grand Prix events.

David Wheaton

He also reached the semi-finals of the men's singles at Wimbledon (beating Andre Agassi in the quarter-finals before being knocked-out by Boris Becker), and was a men's doubles runner-up at the Australian Open (partnering with his former Stanford team-mate Patrick McEnroe).

Mal Anderson

Earlier that year, Anderson had reached the semi-finals of the Australian Championships and won the French Championship doubles, partnering with Ashley Cooper, the man he went on to defeat in the 1957 US Championships final.

Martín Alund

As a lucky loser, Alund reached the semifinals of the 2013 Brasil Open, defeating World No. 25 Jeremy Chardy (fresh off of his career-best Australian Open quarterfinal run) and experienced claycourter Filippo Volandri en route.

Stéphane Huet

In 1999, Huet made the second round of two Majors, the Australian Open, where he beat Arnaud Di Pasquale and the French Open, where he defeated Hendrik Dreekmann, before losing a five set match to eventual finalist Todd Martin, in a final set tie-break.

Wally Foreman

During his career, he covered a wide range of domestic and international sporting events including four Olympic Games, five Commonwealth Games, the Australian Open tennis tournament, World Cup athletics, Hockey World Cup tournaments and the Pacific Conference Games.