Tennis Open

The Australian Tennis Open is seen as a major sporting event not just in Australia but in the world. It is one of the famous Grand Slam tournaments played every year. The Australian Tennis Open also takes place during the holiday period, certainly in the Southern Hemisphere, meaning that school children and teachers are free to join the thousands who attend both day and night sessions and the countless millions who watch on television.

The Open is played in Melbourne at a tennis complex known as Melbourne Park which is the envy of the world in terms of courts, facilities, weather, setting and proximity to the central business district of Australia’s second largest city, Melbourne.

 

Melbourne Park

The main court is the Rod Laver Arena, named after Australia’s great tennis champion. The court has a retractable roof meaning matches can continue if rain falls and even, in Australia’s hot summer weather, if temperatures become too hot. The surface of the court has recently been changed as players complained the former surface was sticky in hot weather. The original surface was Rebound Ace but in 2007 the surface was changed to Plexi Cushion which is blue in colour. The seating capacity of the stadium is almost 15,000. In 2012 the men’s championship will be the 100th time the event has been held.

The tennis centre at Melbourne Park is used for other sports and entertainments and the whole complex continues to grow. It is an ideal setting for the Tennis Open with courts with retractable roofs for play in all weathers. The complex is well served by public transport and spectators can watch the Open in any of the many courts or even by sitting on grass and watching games on the giant screen.

 

The Open is a great tournament

The Open has been running for the men’s championship for a hundred years and now the men’s and women’s title is fiercely contested by players from all over the world. The actual event becomes a huge undertaking when you have singles, doubles and mixed doubles plus a championship for juniors as well. Many of the winners in the under-age competitions at the Open go on to enjoy successful careers as top line tennis professionals.

The top players are automatically involved and given a seeding before the tournament begins. But there are many players who want to play in the Open but who need to play in pre-tournament events to try and win a place. There is even provision for the organizers to offer what are known as wildcard entries to players they believe deserve a chance to play. It can be an exciting time to watch a wildcard entrant play against a much higher ranked player with the prospect of an upset.

 

It’s all show business

The amount of media coverage from journalists around the world, the value and amount of sponsorship money and the huge numbers of spectators both at the tennis event and watching on television or any other types of media is massive. This is a billion dollar event which takes place over almost three weeks with momentum building day after day. The matches start in the morning with some going well into the night.