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Crucial Moments and Milestones: The Story of the Australian Open

2 months ago
| BY News Team

With the 2024 Australian Open qualifiers well underway, it’s worth taking a look at the history of the competition, past winners, and the biggest matches that have taken place in this tournament down under. 

We look into the history of the tournament with more depth below.

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History of the Tournament

The Australian Open is held annually at Melbourne Park in Australia and is the first of four Grand Slam tennis events throughout the year, preceding the French Open (Roland-Garros), Wimbledon, and the US Open. Until 1987, the tournament was held on grass courts but since then has transitioned into the more familiar hardcourt surfaces.

Typically, the Australian Open is the highest attended Grand Slam event, with more than 902,000 people attending the tournament last year, usually coinciding with the Australia Day holiday. The venue itself boasts three courts equipped with retractable roofs to ensure play can continue should wet weather or extreme heat prevail.

The competition features both men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, mixed doubles, and wheelchair competitions. Due to the nature of the courts, the Australian Open is renowned for its fast-paced and aggressive style of play which suits some players more than others.

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Past Winners

Naturally, we expect all the big names to show up every year and last year’s edition saw Novak Djokovic win his 22nd Grand Slam against the Greek talent Stefanos Tsitsipas. For the women, Aryna Sabalenka came from a set down to get the better of Elena Rybakina, who won Wimbledon a year prior. A notable performance in last year’s tournament was the Dutchwoman Diede de Groot who came away with two bits of silverware, winning the wheelchair women’s singles and women’s doubles. De Groot is an exceptional talent with a win rate of 85.6% and boasting 37 Grand Slam titles across singles (20) and doubles (17).

In the 119-year history of the competition, Novak Djokovic is by far the most successful champion, winning it ten times, the first of which way back in 2008. Legend of the game Roger Federer is next best on six wins, but given his retirement back in 2022, it’ll be a while until anyone touches Djokovic’s record.

In the modern Open era, American powerhouse Serena Williams tops the leaderboard on seven wins. Williams has dominated the modern game since the turn of the millennia, with her last win being in 2017, as the baton has been passed onto the younger talents coming through the ranks. Three women sit behind her record, Evonne Goolagong (4), Steffi Graf (4), and Monica Seles (4).

Big Matches

Over the years we have seen some fantastic and exciting games of tennis played in Melbourne, but there are a couple that stand out and will pass the test of time, going down as some of the most legendary games ever played in the Australian Open.

Pete Sampras v Jim Courier 1995 Quarterfinal

What is remembered to be one of the great comebacks in the Australian Open was achieved by Pete Sampras who beat Jim Courier in the quarterfinals of the 1995 edition. Sampras was two sets down and managed to claw it back two sets apiece, and during the first game of the fifth set, while serving, Sampras burst into tears.

It was only until after the game that it was apparent that his coach and close friend Tim Gullikson was flown to America that day for treatment having been diagnosed with brain cancer, so having held it together for four sets with knowledge of this before the game started, he broke out into tears serving the first game and proceeded to fire two consecutive aces to win his serve, collapsing in his chair during the changeover.

He then collected himself and managed to finish off the victory, displaying exceptional tennis from both sides. It was a particularly special match and is certainly one for the history books.

Novak Djokovic v Rafael Nadal 2012 Final

This historic game went the distance, lasting five hours and 53 minutes, ending at 1:37am Melbourne time. This match was notable due to the visible exhaustion of both players as they slugged away, playing some fantastic tennis culminating in a Djokovic win.

It truly was a spectacle for tennis fans, seeing two legends of the game battle it out in a five-set thriller for the third time in a Grand Slam final that year. The two players struggled to stay upright during the awards ceremony with the game being a true testament to the resilience and quality that these powerhouses demonstrated throughout the contest.

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