Australian Open

The Australian Open is a tennis tournament in Australia. It is traditionally the 1st Grand Slam tournament of the year and is held in Melbourne in January.

[edit] History

The first Australian Open took place in 1905. It has been staged in the cities Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Christchurch and Hastings (both New Zealand) before staying in Melbourne regularly from 1972 on. Moving from Kooyong to Flinders Park (now: Melbourne Park) in 1988, the surface was changed from grass to hardcourt.

Rodney Heath (Australia) won the first Australian Open. His compatriot Margaret Molesworth was the first woman to succeed in 1922.

Mark Edmondson was the last male Australian in 1978 to win the Australian Open title. The last female player from Australia to win was Christine O'Neil in the same year.

Record Australian Open champions are Roy Emerson from Australia with six victories and his compatriot Margaret Court with eleven singles titles.

In 2008, Serbian Novak Djokovic beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) to win his first Grand Slam title, whilst Maria Sharapova from Russia defeated Serbian Ana Ivanovic.

[edit] Weblinks

• Official Australian Open Website

Created by: Tennisfan