Serena Williams has won the Australian Open women’s singles crown five times since 2003 es ag open season tty im e These days the venue and the event are as much celebrities as the players. But it wasn’t always so. Linda Pearce charts the rise and
PHOTOGRAPHY: g rise of that once poor grand slam relation, the Australian Open.
january 2014 QANTAS 69 tennis melbourne
Walking into Kooyong’s now-dated, weathered centre court, 27 years after the great Swede Stefan Edberg closed the previous Australian Open tennis era with a five-set win over hometown warrior Pat Cash, it is difficult to reconcile the tournament’s modest former identity with its big, bold, shiny current self.
The wealthy private club in Hawthorn, in the heart of Melbourne’s their heads at an annual attendance that now pushes 700,000. “That leafy east, hosted the modest version of one of the world’s four grand is amazing when you think of where it was 20-odd years ago,” says slam tournaments from 1972 until its move in 1988, a few significant the Australian tennis legend, the only player to complete the grand kilometres along the Monash Freeway to the purpose-built Flinders slam twice (winning all four tournaments in 1962 and 1969). Park – later renamed Melbourne Park. It is also one of the few sports events in Australia with a truly global Attendance figures immediately rose by 90 per cent to 266,436 reach and profile, broadcast in more than 200 countries to an inter- at the spacious new venue that year, as Cash fell to another Swede, national television audience in the hundreds of millions. Closer to Mats Wilander, in a second thrilling final. While the fact that just six home, the Open now injects an estimated $238m a year into the of the men’s top 20 entered is an unthinkable statistic in the current state’s economy, filling planes, hotel rooms, shops and restaurants, everyone-comes competition climate, history also shows that as and adding a buzz to summer in the city. traditional grass made way for hardcourt, the seeds of a remarkable “I’ve only ever known it since it’s been at Melbourne Park when success story were sown. I used to go and watch,” says Australia’s former world No.1 Lleyton What is chronologically the first of the year’s four major tennis Hewitt, who visited from Adelaide each January as a schoolboy. “All events – followed by the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open the grand slams have grown over the years. With the roof, Melbourne – has since sprouted wildly in both size and prestige, with former Park was fantastic – and now it’s getting better and better each year. Champions all (from left): Victoria Azarenka, Rafael champion (1960, 1962, 1969) Rod Laver among those left to shake From what I hear, it’s very fan-friendly, which is the big thing.” Nadal, Roger Federer
Melbourne Park Tennis Centre, home of the Australian Open
The event that installed the first retractable roof in grand slam Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, and resurgent Spaniard Rafael es tennis will, by 2015, have three. A new $40m TV rights deal has been Nadal reappears for the first time since his brave defeat in the epic ag negotiated with Seven West Media, and prize money has ballooned 2012 decider against Djokovic. tty im
e to a record $33m, with an expected boost to $40m by 2016. Indeed, While Switzerland’s four-time champion Roger Federer appears : g
r given the shortage of local contenders on the court, it could be – sadly, for his many fans clinging to hope of one last great rally – to e r argued the Open is that rarest of things: an Australian tennis winner. be in decline, three-time finalist Andy Murray returns from minor
l/fede Hewitt, 32, was the most recent home-grown finalist, in 2005, while back surgery as the reigning Wimbledon champion. The Scot’s a d
a 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur’s repeated struggles to momentous midyear achievement at the All England Club ended a /n
a replicate her best overseas form in the unrelenting antipodean British dry spell that had stretched since Fred Perry won in 1936. In
enk spotlight have been almost painful to watch. Neither was born when the modern era, through Australian Open women’s titleholder ar z Kooyong hosted the crownings of the last native Australian Victoria Azarenka, even the once-barren Belarus now boasts a major
n; a champions: Mark Edmondson (1976) and Chris O’Neil (1978). singles champion. Still, the favourite for the Daphne Akhurst o m
o There is some promising talent leading the next generation, Memorial Cup will again be American superstar Serena Williams, l o as teenagers Ashleigh Barty from Queensland, Canberran Nick the 17-time major winner who has prevailed five times in Australia. Kyrgios and several other decorated juniors begin the difficult tran- Or, specifically, at Melbourne Park, which is a long way from sition to the senior game. However, they’re not quite ready to make Kooyong in all but geography. Having been transformed from grand major inroads. In the meantime, slam poor relation to much-loved sibling, and as its home undergoes expect another international raid Linda Pearce is chief a $366m redevelopment, the Australian Open’s future is bright. tennis writer for The Age, on the silverware in 2014, as Novak Melbourne. Australian Open,
dium PHOTOGRAPHY: ben s Djokovic of Serbia attempts to Melbourne Park, Jan 13-26. For airfares and holiday packages to Melbourne call Qantas ta
s claim a fifth (fourth consecutive) ausopen.com Holidays on 1300 735 542 or visit qantas.com/holidaysaustralianway
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