Australian Open

The Australian Open is the largest tennis tournament in Australia. This championship is the first of the Grand Slam tournaments in the calendar year; it takes place in January in Melbourne, Australia's second city. The tournament has been held since 1905.The matches are played at Melbourne Park, built in 1988 specifically for this tournament. Melbourne Park has 24 courts spread over 20 hectares. The courts have a hard surface. The two largest arenas have retractable roofs (Rod Laver Arena (14,820 seats) and Vodafone Arena (10,000 seats)). In 2006, 624,785 spectators attended the tournament's matches during the 2 weeks of the tournament.The winner of the men's singles tournament is awarded the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, named after Australian tennis player Norman Brookes, who made a great contribution to the development of the championship and was also its winner in 1911.