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Australian Championships

Australian Open
Australian Open Logo 2017.png
Official website
Founded 1905; 112 years ago (1905)
Editions 105 (2017)
Location Melbourne (since 1972)
Australia Australia
Venue Melbourne Park (since 1988)
Surface Grass - outdoors (1905–87)
Hard - outdoors(since 1988)
Prize money A$50,000,000 (2017)
Men's
Draw 128S / 128Q / 64D
Current champions Switzerland Roger Federer (singles)
Finland Henri Kontinen
Australia John Peers (doubles)
Most singles titles 6
Australia Roy Emerson
Serbia Novak Djokovic
Most doubles titles 10
Australia Adrian Quist
Women's
Draw 128S / 96Q / 64D
Current champions United States Serena Williams (singles)
United States Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Czech Republic Lucie Šafářová (doubles)
Most singles titles 11
Australia Margaret Court
Most doubles titles 12
Australia Thelma Coyne Long
Mixed Doubles
Draw 48
Current champions United States Abigail Spears
Colombia Juan Sebastián Cabal
Most titles (male) 4
Australia Harry Hopman
Australia Colin Long
Most titles (female) 4
Australia Daphne Akhurst Cozens
Australia Nell Hall Hopman
Australia Nancye Wynne Bolton
Australia Thelma Coyne Long
Grand Slam
Last Completed
2017 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 courts, but since then two types of hardcourt surfaces have been used at Melbourne Park – green coloured Rebound Ace up to 2007 and, afterwards, blue Plexicushion.

The Australian Open typically has high attendances, rivalling and occasionally exceeding the US Open. The tournament holds the record for the highest attendance at a Grand Slam event. It was 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.

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 November 1905. This facility is now known as the Albert Reserve Tennis Centre.

The tournament was first known as the Australasian Championships and then became the Australian Championships in 1927 and the Australian Open in 1969. Since 1905, the Australian Open has been staged in five Australian and two New Zealand cities: Melbourne (55 times), Sydney (17 times), Adelaide (14 times), Brisbane (7 times), Perth (3 times), Christchurch (1906) and Hastings (1912). Though started in 1905, the tournament was not designated as being a major championship until 1924, by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) at a 1923 meeting. The tournament committee changed the structure of the tournament to include seeding at that time. In 1972, it was decided to stage the tournament in Melbourne each year because it attracted the biggest patronage of any Australian city. The tournament was played at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club from 1972 until the move to the new Melbourne Park complex in 1988.


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