Photos: Courtesy Australian Open, Melbourne Park & Unsplash
The first Grand Slam is always played in January in Australia. The first tennis tournament was played there in 1905, under the name of the Australasian Championship, then it was called the Australian Championship in 1927, and it wasn’t until 1968 that professional players were allowed to participate in the tournament, called the Australian Open.
The origin of “Grand Slam” comes from the beginning of the 19th century, specifically from 1814, it was used in bridge to say that a person had won the card game by achieving the maximum of the 13 tricks. From then on, the term Grand Slam began to be related to success and expanded to other sports, such as motor racing, which is won by the Formula One driver when he achieves the pole position, sets the fastest lap and leads all the laps of the Grand Prix; in baseball it´s accomplished when the player hit a home run with a full house and therefore scores four runs; in golf when one player wins all four major tournaments in the same calendar year; in the case of rugby, it’s awarded to the team that wins all the matches in the Six Nations Championship.
In tennis, it refers to the achievement of winning all four major championships - Australia, France, Britain and the United States - in the same calendar season. In the modern era, the term has been adopted to describe any of the four official tournaments on the international circuit organised by International Tennis Federation and is where the highest number of world ranking points are earned.
This recognition has been achieved twice by Australian Rod Laver, once as an amateur in 1962 and again in 1969 when the Slams were first opened to all competitors, which is why in Melbourne the main court is named after him.
Melbourne hosted this elegant tournament
This year 2024, the 112th edition of the Australian Open will be played on GreenSet courts that have been part of Melbourne Park since 2020. These courts have an intermediate hardness that slows and dampens the speed of the ball, allowing players greater control.
Serbian Novak Djokovic has been the leading male tennis player at Australian Open with 10 titles won, followed by Roger Federer who triumphed 6 times along with Australian Roy Emerson, and tied with 4 titles are Andre Agassi, Ken Rosewall and Jack Crawford.
Undoubtedly, Australians won on home soil on several occasions, and we can highlight Ashleigh “Ash” Barty, who retired as world number one and winning on home.
In the women’s honours list, the “Australian Amazon” Margaret Court - born Smith- is the only woman to win 64 tennis titles during her 15-year career.
Margaret won 24 single titles in the white sport; 11 of them were in Australia, 5 Roland Garros, 5 US Open and 3 Wimbledon. Serena Williams won seven titles in Australia and Melburnian Nancye Wynne Bolton, six.
The tennis player was born in Albury in 1942. Her home was next to the Albury Tennis Centre and her first contact with the sport consisted of hitting old balls she found in the street with a piece of wood.
Almost absolute dominator of world tennis in the 1960s, Margaret Court is considered the pioneer of physical training and continuous improvement of technique. Her coach, Stan Nicholls, encouraged her to develop her strength and endurance by running up sand hills. The serve and volley were her formulas for success, and this enabled her to remain number one Grand Year for six years - from 1962 to 1965, 1969 and 1970.
In 1967 Margaret Smith married the brother of the Governor of Western Australia, Barrymore Court. Since then, Margaret has been known by her married name ‘Court.’
Recognition of a winner.
The honours for the former player have been many; she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1967, was inducted into the Australian Sports Hall of Fame in 1985 and into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame in 1993.
And as the highest honour of her career, the Australian Open’s “Show Court One” was renamed in January 2003 as “Margaret Court Arena,” one of the main stadiums where some of the Open matches will be played from 14 to 28 January 2024.
In 2010, the court was transformed into a venue for a variety of sporting and entertainment events. With a capacity of 7,500 people, the MCA features a state-of-the-art retractable roof, the fastest of its kind in the world, which opens and closes in just five minutes.
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