Australian Open - The First Grand Slam Tennis Tournament of the Year

Australian Open is the first big Grand Slam tournament of the year in tennis. Australian Open tournament was played for the first time 1905 and it has been Grand Slam tennis tournament since 1968. Before 1968 the tennis tournament was known as Australian Championships. Nowadays the tournament is played in Melbourne.

The Big Prize Money of the tennis tournaments

If you are a tennis player or dream about being one, it is definitely worth of all the hard training you have to go through. Of course everybody does not have the talent or possibility to try this but let us think about Rafael Nadal for example. He has achieved 20,757,647$ prize money so far during his career to the year 2010 and he is only 23 years old. Rafael Nadal is extraordinary talented player but to be honest in tennis the best players have a chance to earn incredible amounts of money. Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament shared 2009 24,140,000 A$ money for the players. One Australian dollar is about one US dollar. Sure this amount includes all, men, women, boys and girls in singles double and mixed tournaments but it is still pretty much money. The biggest part was used naturally to the men tournament but few years ago women were decided to get the same prize money. In 2009 the winners of the men and women singles got 2,000,000A$.

Making the prize money equal was actually a bit strange decision especially in Grand Slam tournaments. In tennis tournaments the players are playing usually the best out of three sets, both men and women. In Grand Slam and Davis Cup tournaments the system is different. Women have the same system but men have the best out of five sets. After the decision to give the same prize money for men and women came out, it was talked about much. The different opinions can be placed in three different categories. The first opinion was to think the old system being better, where the tennis tournaments of men were valued higher in prize money. Why? Because the matches of men are thought to be more entertaining and it is true the audience likes to watch higher quality tennis, would not you? The other opinion was that the decision was right because no matter on what level the players are playing they are doing the same work. The equality of men and women was their reasoning. The third opinion was in the middle of these opinions. It is fair to give the same money in other tournaments expect in Grand Slam tennis tournaments because men are playing longer matches. One “unknown” woman player was asked, should women also play the best out of five system matches since they receive the same prize money. She answered, definitely no because the physiology of women will not last in so long games.

Anyway the men and women have now equal prize money, fair or no.

The schedule and preparation to Australian Open

Tennis players have a busy year. They have tournaments almost trough the whole year, December being the only time of the year without any tournaments. Of course they do not need to play in all tournaments and some players concentrate only to the most important tournaments keeping smaller tournaments as training tournaments. Some players relax on their holiday month and others train hard. The Grand Slam tennis tournament of Australian Open starts always in the middle of January. The new season starts two weeks earlier. The players go to Australia where the weather is sunny and hot causing problems to many players. Thinner players are in happier position because their body uses less energy in moving. On the other hand players who posses more power (players with heavy body structure usually have more power) are in good position in Australia because the hard courts in Australia are fast. Because Australian players have grown up on fast courts they have seldom success on clay courts. The tennis season starts in Australia because of the weather. The other side of the world is suffering the winter and it is not a good time to play tennis outside so Australia gives ideal conditions to play tennis if you like the hot weather. If the weather becomes extremely hot, two main courts, Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Arena have roofs which can be closed. It is not unusual some matches are cancelled for some time during the tournament because of the heat.

Pre Australian Open tournaments matches are offering usually many surprises. Many favorites loses against worse opponent. As I said before some better players are concentrating seriously only to the bigger tournaments. Because the players have a lack of game rhythm, is it another reason for surprises. Even after the two weeks Australian Open offers usually the biggest surprises. Some players are out of form and some have done really good preparation during the break. Since the courts are fast big servers have even bigger advantage in Australian Open tennis tournament to make surprises against players who are still trying to find their game rhythm at the start of the game season.

The surface chances

Wimbledon has not been always the only grass court Grand Slam tennis tournament. Australian Championship and Australian Open has a history on the grass to the year 1987. After this the tournament was moved to Melbourne to the Rebound Ace surface. In 2008 the players had a chance to play on a brand new surface. Plexicushion Prestige was the new surface. The new surface is more consistent when the ball bounces from it, and it does not absorb as much heat as the previous surface where the main reasons for the surface chance.

The last words

When we compare all Grand Slam tennis tournaments Australian Grand Slam tennis tournament is not maybe the most appreciated tournament but scheduling it to the start of the year and because the tournament has hard weather conditions it needs the biggest preparing it is the most demanding Grand Slam tournament. Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament has been offering big emotions, tears and great success stories during the years and I hope it can offer the same on the coming years too.