Australian Open Tennis

The Australian Open is the year's first event in the Grand Slam of tennis, followed by the French Open, the United States Open, and Wimbledon. It is played on synthetic hard courts at Sydney, Australia, and Melbourne, Australia, and known officially as the Australian Championships. Tennis took root in Australia in 1880 at the Melbourne Cricket Club. The championship for men began in 1905, and the women's championship in 1922. The matches became an "open" (to both amateurs and professionals) in 1969.
Margaret Smith Court, an Australian known for her powerful serve and volley, is the all-time champion in the women's division of the open; she won the title 11 times between 1960 and 1973. In 1970, she was the second woman to win the Grand Slam; Maureen Connolly had swept the four tournaments in 1953, and Steffi Graf won all four in 1988.
Top multiple winners in the men's division of the Australian Open have been Roy Emerson, who took six titles (1961 and 1962-67); Jack Crawford, Ken Rosewall, and Pat Wood, who each won four; and Rod Laver, Adrian Quist, and Mats Wilander, who each won three.
In 1990, for the first time in Open Grand Slam history, the eight singles titles for men and women were won by eight different players.

CONTACTS:
Tennis Australia
P.O. Box 6060
Richmond South, VIC 3121 Australia
61-3-9286-1177; fax: 61-3-9650-2743
www.australianopen.com