Australian Open Tennis

The Australian Open in tennis is the first of the four Grand Slam events on the calendar each year. It consists of the men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, mixed doubles and juniors.

The two-week event takes place at Melbourne Park in January on a hard court, which is a plexicushion surface.

In the men's tournament, matches are held over five sets, while the women play over a shorter format of three sets.

It was first held in 1905 when it was played on grass at the Warehouseman's Cricket Ground. Australia Rodney Heath beat his fellow compatriot Arthur Curtis that year over four sets.

The Australian Open is run by Tennis Australia and used to be known as the Australasian Championships in the early stages of its existence.

In 1927 it changed its name to the Australian Championships, and it wasn't until 1969 that it adopted its current title.

The Melbourne Park event was changed to a rebound ace surface in 1988 from grass. Then, in 2008, the organisers decided to adopt plexicushion.

Mats Wilander is the only player in history to win the Grand Slam on both grass and on a hard court surface. The Swede was successful on grass in 1983 and 1984, whilst in 1988 he won the first tournament held on rebound ace.

Most records in the tournament are listed as either before 1969 or after. The most successful men's player of the Australian Championships was Roy Emerson, who managed to accumulate six wins in the 1960s. He was first successful in 1961, and from 1963 until 1967 he managed to secure the title every year.

Three men hold the record in the men's competition post-1969. Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have all won the tournament on four different occasions each. The latter has been successful in the last three events held.

In the women's competitions Margaret Court dominated the 1960s and 1970s. She won 11 titles between the two decades. The only other woman in history to come close to that record is Serena Williams, who secured the Australian Open for the fifth time in 2010.

Apart from between 1916-1918 and 1941-1945, when the First and Second World Wars interrupted the tournament, the Australian Open has taken place every year apart from 1986 as it moved from December to January on the tennis calendar.

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