Wikipedia

Tennis in Australia

Tennis in Australia refers to the sport of tennis played in Australia. Tennis in Australia has been administered by Tennis Australia (formerly the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia (LTAA)) since 1904.[1]

Melbourne Park - Home to the Australian Open since 1988

Australia hosts the first of the four Grand Slam events of the year, the Australian Open. The Australian Open is managed by Tennis Australia and was first played in Melbourne in 1905. The tournament was first known as the Australasian Championships and then became the Australian Championships in 1927 and the Australian Open in 1969.[2]

History

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In the 1950s, Australia became a tennis power, and Australian men won the Davis Cup 15 times from 1950 to 1967, led by outstanding players such as Frank Sedgman, Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Roy Emerson, and Ashley Cooper.[3]

Rod Laver has twice achieved the Grand Slam in men's singles, in 1962 and 1969, the only tennis player to have accomplished this feat. Fellow Australian tennis player Margaret Smith Court also achieved the Grand Slam in women's singles in 1970, Margaret Court also holds the record for the greatest number of women's singles Grand Slams won and is one of only three players ever to have won a career Grand Slam "boxed set"

Major tournaments and current champions

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Main article: Australian Open Series

Australian Open

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Current champions

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2024 Australian Open
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    Jannik Sinner, 2024 men's singles champion. It was his first major title.
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    Aryna Sabalenka, 2024 women's singles champion. It was her second major title and her second at the Australian Open.
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    Rohan Bopanna was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. It was his first major title.
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    Matthew Ebden was part of the 2024 winning men's doubles team. It was his second major title and first at the Australian Open.
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    Elise Mertens was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles team. It was her fourth major title and second at the Australian Open.
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    Hsieh Su-wei was part of the 2024 winning women's doubles and mixed doubles team. It was her seventh major title in women's doubles and first major title in mixed doubles.
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    Jan Zieliński was part of the 2024 winning mixed doubles team. It was his first major title.

Most recent finals

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2024 Event Champion Runner-up Score
Men's singles   Jannik Sinner   Daniil Medvedev 3–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–4, 6–3
Women's singles   Aryna Sabalenka   Zheng Qinwen 6–3, 6–2
Men's doubles   Rohan Bopanna
  Matthew Ebden 		  Simone Bolelli
  Andrea Vavassori 		7–6(7–0), 7–5.
Women's doubles   Hsieh Su-wei
  Elise Mertens 		  Lyudmyla Kichenok
  Jeļena Ostapenko 		6-1, 7-5
Mixed doubles   Hsieh Su-wei
  Jan Zieliński 		  Desirae Krawczyk
  Neal Skupski 		6–7(5–7), 6–4, [11–9]

Pre–Australian Open

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Tournament Category Current champion Current runner-up Score
United Cup 2024 United Cup   Germany

Alexander Zverev

Angelique Kerber

Laura Siegemund

  Poland

Iga Świątek

Hubert Hurkacz

2–1
Brisbane International 2024 Brisbane International – Men's singles ATP 250   Grigor Dimitrov   Holger Rune 7–6(7–5), 6–4
2024 Brisbane International – Women's singles WTA 500   Elena Rybakina   Aryna Sabalenka 6–0, 6–3
Adelaide International 2024 Adelaide International – Men's singles ATP 250   Jiří Lehečka   Jack Draper 4–6, 6–4, 6–3
2024 Adelaide International – Women's singles WTA 500   Jeļena Ostapenko   Daria Kasatkina 6–3, 6–2
Hobart International 2024 Hobart International – Singles WTA 250   Emma Navarro   Elise Mertens 6–1, 4–6, 7–5

Lower Tier Tournaments

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ATP Challenger Tour

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The ATP Challenger Tour is the second tier of professional tennis tournaments run by the Association of Tennis Professionals. These tournaments offer up to 175 rankings points with five Challenger events currently held in Australia, Canberra in the first week of the tour, back-to-back events in Burnie, Tasmania in the fortnight following the Australian Open and in Playford, South Australia then Sydney, New South Wales in the fortnight following the ATP Tour's Asian Swing.[4]

Tournament Points Most Recent Champion Runner-up Score
Canberra Tennis International 125 January, 2024   Dominik Koepfer   Jakub Menšík 6–3, 6–2
Burnie International 75 January, 2024   Omar Jasika   Alex Bolt 6–2, 6–7(2–7), 6–3
Burnie International II 75 February, 2024   Adam Walton   Dane Sweeny 6–2, 7–6(7–4)
City of Playford Tennis International 75 October, 2023   James Duckworth   Coleman Wong 7–5, 7–5
NSW Open Challenger 75 October, 2023   Taro Daniel   Marc Polmans 6–2, 6–4

WTA 125 Tournaments

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The WTA 125 Tournaments is the second tier of WTA events with each event worth 125 points. There are 20 WTA 125 Tournaments, one of which is held in Canberra, simultaneously with the ATP Challenger event.

Tournament Points Most Recent Champion Runner-up Score
Canberra Tennis International 175 January, 2024   Nuria Párrizas Díaz   Harriet Dart 6–4, 6–3

Highest ranked players

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Number 1 Ranked Players

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Top 10 Ranked Players

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The lists include Australian players who have had a ranking inside the ATP or WTA top 10. The rankings were introduced in 1973 (men) and 1975 (women).

Men's Singles

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Source[5]

Player Ranking Date reached top 10 ATP Tour
High Current Turned Pro Retired Titles
John Newcombe 1 N/A 1973, 23 August 1967 1981 41
Pat Rafter 1 N/A 1997, 8 September 1991 2002 11
Lleyton Hewitt 1 N/A 2000, 15 May 1998 2016 20
Ken Rosewall 2 N/A 1973, 23 August 1956 1980 14
Rod Laver 3 N/A 1973, 23 August 1963 1979 72
Pat Cash 4 N/A 1984, 10 September 1982 1997 6
Peter McNamara 7 N/A 1981, 6 July 1974 1987 5
Alex de Minaur 7 7 2024, January 8 2015 9
Tony Roche 8 N/A 1975, 26 July 1963 1979 46
John Alexander 8 N/A 1975, 21 October 1967 1985 7
Mark Philippoussis 8 N/A 1999, 29 March 1994 2008 11

Women's Singles

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Source[6]

Player Ranking Date reached top 10 WTA Tour
High Current Turned Pro Retired Titles
Evonne Goolagong Cawley 1 N/A 1975, November 3 1967 1983 86
Ashleigh Barty 1 N/A 2019, April 1 2010 2022 15
Wendy Turnbull 3 N/A 1977, November 27 1975 1989 11
Hana Mandlikova 3 N/A 1980, June 9 1978 1990 27
Dianne Fromholtz 4 N/A 1976, September 14 1973 1990 8
Margaret Court 5 N/A 1975, November 3 1960 1977 92
Jelena Dokic 4 N/A 2001, October 8 1998 2014 6
Samantha Stosur 4 N/A 2010, March 22 1999 2023 9
Kerry Melville 7 N/A 1975, November 3 1963 1979 22
Alicia Molik 8 N/A 2005, January 31 1996 2011 5

Doubles

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The lists include the 5 best ranked Australian players. The rankings were introduced in 1976 (men) and 1984 (women).

Men

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Player Ranking No. ATP Tour
High Current Turned Pro Retired Titles
Paul McNamee 1 N/A 1973 1988 23
John Fitzgerald 1 N/A 1980 1997 30
Todd Woodbridge 1 N/A 1988 2005 83
Mark Woodforde 1 N/A 1984 2000 67
Matthew Ebden 1 1 2006 11
John Peers 2 45 2011 24
Peter McNamara 3 N/A 1974 1987 19
Mark Edmondson 3 N/A 1975 1987 34

Women

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Player Ranking No. WTA Tour
High Current Turned Pro Retired Titles
Rennae Stubbs 1 N/A 1992 2011 60
Sam Stosur 1 N/A 1999 2023 27
Storm Hunter 1 4 2013 8
Casey Dellacqua 3 N/A 2002 2018 7
Elizabeth Smylie 5 N/A 1982 1997 36
Ashleigh Barty 5 N/A 2010 2022 12

Performance timelines since 2000

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Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Men's singles

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Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 SR
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open 4R SF 2R 4R 4R F 3R 3R 4R 2R 4R 3R 4R 2R 2R QF 4R 3R 4R 3R 4R 3R 4R 4R 4R 0 / 25
French Open 4R QF 4R 3R QF 2R 4R 4R 3R 3R 3R 1R 2R 2R 2R 3R 3R 2R 1R 3R 2R 2R 2R 3R QF 0 / 25
Wimbledon F F W F QF SF QF 4R 4R QF 4R QF 1R 4R QF 4R 4R 1R 3R 3R NH 3R F 3R QF 1 / 24
US Open SF W SF QF F SF QF 2R 2R 3R 2R 2R 3R 4R 3R 3R 3R 3R QF 4R QF 3R QF 4R QF 1 / 25
Year-end championship
ATP Finals RR W W DNQ F A Did not qualify 2 / 4

Women's singles

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Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 SR
Australian Open 3R 3R 2R 4R 4R QF 4R 3R 4R QF 4R 3R 2R 2R 4R 2R 4R 4R 3R QF SF QF W 2R 3R 1 / 25
French Open 2R 3R 3R 2R 2R 2R 3R 3R 3R SF F 3R SF 3R 4R 3R SF 4R 3R W 2R 2R 3R 2R 1R 1 / 25
Wimbledon SF 2R 1R 3R 4R 2R 3R 2R 3R 3R 4R 3R 2R 3R 2R 3R 2R 2R 3R 4R NH W QF 1R 2R 1 / 24
US Open 4R 3R 2R 3R 2R 2R 2R 2R 2R 3R QF W QF 2R 4R 4R 2R 3R 4R 4R 1R 3R QF 2R 2R 1 / 25
Year-end championship
WTA Finals Did not qualify SF SF RR Did not qualify W NH Did not qualify 1 / 4

Davis Cup

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See: Australian Davis Cup Team

Titles - 28 (1907, 1908, 1909, 1911, 1914, 1919, 1939, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1973, 1977, 1983, 1986, 1999, 2003).

Runners-up - 21 (1912, 1920, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1936, 1938, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1954, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1990, 1993, 2000, 2001, 2022, 2023).

Billie Jean King Cup

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Formerly named Fed Cup

See: Australia Fed Cup team

Titles - 7 (1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974)

Runners-up - 11 (1963, 1969, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1993, 2019, 2022)

Olympic Medals

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Result Year Venue Surface Division Player(s) Opponent(s) Score
Bronze 1988 Seoul, South Korea Hard Women's doubles   Elizabeth Smylie

  Wendy Turnbull

n/a n/a
Bronze 1992 Barcelona, Spain Clay Women's doubles   Rachel McQuillan

  Nicole Provis

n/a n/a
Gold 1996 Atlanta, Georgia, US Hard Men's doubles   Todd Woodbridge

  Mark Woodforde

  Neil Broad

  Tim Henman

6–4, 6–4, 6–2
4th 2000 Sydney, Australia Hard Women's singles   Jelena Dokic   Monica Seles 1–6, 4–6
Silver 2000 Sydney, Australia Hard Men's doubles   Todd Woodbridge

  Mark Woodforde

  Sébastien Lareau

  Daniel Nestor

7–5, 3–6, 4–6, 6–7
Bronze 2004 Athens, Greece Hard Women's singles   Alicia Molik   Anastasia Myskina 6–3, 6–4
Bronze 2020 Tokyo, Japan Hard Mixed doubles   Ashleigh Barty

  John Peers

  Novak Djokovic

  Nina Stojanović

w/o
Gold 2024 Paris, France Clay Men's doubles   Matthew Ebden

  John Peers

  Austin Krajicek

  Rajeev Ram

6–7(6–8), 7–6(7–1), [10–8]

Broadcasting

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Australian Open

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From 1973 until 2018, the Australian Open was broadcast in Australia on the Seven Network. In March, 2018 it was announced that rival network, the Nine Network had won the rights to televise the tournament for $60 million per year, for five years between 2020 and 2024. While the contract was not to begin until 2020, the Nine Network, incumbent rights holders the Seven Network and Tennis Australia negotiated to bring this forward by one year allowing Nine to telecast the Australian Open from 2019.[7] In 2022 the Nine Network and Tennis Australia agreed to a further five years with Nine paying $85 million per year to telecast the event from 2025 until 2029.[8] In addition to the Australian Open, Nine have the exclusive rights to televise the Australian-held lead in events including the United Cup, Brisbane International, Adelaide International and formerly the Hopman Cup, ATP Cup Sydney International and temporary Melbourne events held in 2021.[9]

Presently Nine dedicate two linear broadcast channels to the Australian Open, the main channel Channel 9 and secondary channel 9Gem with the tennis moving to 9Go! during the hour long Nine News bulletin between 6pm and 7pm. Furthermore, all matches, on all courts are available to stream for free through Nine's live stream, video on demand and catch-up TV service 9Now with matches also available without commercials and on demand through Nine's subscription sports streaming service Stan Sport.[10]

French Open

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Since 2021, the Nine Network is the Australian broadcast holder with coverage on secondary channel 9Gem. Additional courts are available to stream via Stan Sport, a pay for view streaming service owned by Nine.[11] Previously, subscription television service Foxtel had the rights to the French Open with SBS Australia simulcasting World-feed coverage from 10:30pm AEST.[12]

Wimbledon

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The Nine Network broadcast the Wimbledon Championships for over 40 years until losing the rights to rivals Seven Network following the 2010 tournament at the time citing declining ratings.[13] While Seven had the Wimbledon rights, there was also an agreement with subscription television service Foxtel who had rights to televise select matches until the quarterfinals with Seven getting first pick at two daily matches they would be able to televise exclusively.[14] In late 2020 Nine regained exclusive rights to the Championships signing a three-year contract to broadcast the championships until 2023. In addition to what was televised via their terrestrial free-to-air channel (either Channel 9 or secondary channel 9Gem), all matches are able to be streamed via Stan Sport, a pay for view streaming service owned by Nine.[15]

US Open

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The Nine Network is the current broadcast holder of the US Open having gained the rights to the event from 2022 making the Nine Network the home of Australian tennis with all four Grand Slams and Australian Open lead in events as well as all Australian rubbers of the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup.[16] Matches are televised on 9Gem with additional courts able to be stream via Stan Sport, a pay for view streaming service owned by Nine. Prior to Nine, subscription channel ESPN Australia broadcast the US Open simulcasting coverage from their American counterparts with localised coverage occurring for matches involving Australian players. Additionally, between 2019 and 2021 SBS Australia simulcast coverage of the Quarterfinals onwards using the World Feed.[17]

Davis Cup

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Australian ties are broadcast on the Nine Network with other ties on subscription service BeIN Sports Australia.

Billie Jean King Cup

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Australian ties are broadcast on the Nine Network with other ties on subscription service BeIN Sports Australia.

ATP Tour Events

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Since 2021 all ATP Masters 1000 tournaments and ATP 500 tournaments as well as ATP 250 tournaments with the exception of the Brisbane and Adelaide Internationals, are broadcast on BeIN Sports a subscription service available through Amazon Prime Video and through BeIN Sports directly. Prior to 2021, ATP Masters 1000 and 500 tournaments were televised on ESPN Australia with non-Australian ATP 250 tournaments on Fox Sports Australia.

WTA Tour Events

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All Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour events, with the exception of the Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart Internationals are televised on BeIN Sports a subscription service available through Amazon Prime Video and through BeIN Sports directly. In 2021, BeIN Sports signed a deal with the WTA giving them broadcast rights until 2026.[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "A History of Australian Tennis". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  2. ^ Tristan Foenander. "History of the Australian Open – the Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific". Australian Open. Archived from the original on 20 January 2008. Retrieved 22 January 2008.
  3. ^ "History of Tennis". Archived from the original on 2012-05-08. Retrieved 2012-08-29.
  4. ^ "Australian Pro Tour | Pro Tournaments | Tournaments". Tennis Australia. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  5. ^ ATP Media (25 December 2023). Media Guide 2024. ATP.
  6. ^ WTA Media (2023). Media Guide 2024. WTA Media.
  7. ^ Duke, Jennifer (2018-06-24). "Nine secures rights to the 2019 Australian Open tennis from Seven". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  8. ^ "Tennis Australia signs historic Nine Network rights extension | AO". ausopen.com. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  9. ^ Duke, Jennifer (2018-03-28). "Nine nabs tennis broadcasting rights from Seven". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  10. ^ "How to watch Australian Open 2024 live and free". wwos.nine.com.au. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  11. ^ "Channel Nine is the new and exclusive broadcaster of Roland-Garros in Australia - Roland-Garros - The official site". www.rolandgarros.com. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  12. ^ Mediaweek (2019-05-08). "Roland Garros 2019 to be shown live on SBS". Mediaweek. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  13. ^ "Channel Nine to bet its bank on footy". PerthNow. 2010-07-16. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  14. ^ Mediaweek (2015-07-24). "Fox Sports' unprecedented Wimbledon coverage". Mediaweek. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  15. ^ "Stan Sport pounces on Wimbledon, Roland Garros". wwos.nine.com.au. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  16. ^ "Nine grabs US Open". Nine for Brands. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  17. ^ Mediaweek (2019-09-03). "TV Guide: How to watch US Open live on SBS". Mediaweek. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  18. ^ "WTA Tour buoyed by beIN extension in Australia, France and Turkey". SportBusiness. 2021-12-16. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
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