Overview
The first Grand Slam of the year — hard courts in Melbourne in January, played in extreme summer heat.
The Australian Open is the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments each year, played over two weeks in January at Melbourne Park on hard courts. Singles draws are 128 players, with doubles, mixed doubles, juniors, wheelchair and legends events alongside.
Heat is the tournament's defining condition: temperatures above 40°C are routine, and a heat policy allows play to be suspended and the three main stadium roofs closed. It draws the largest attendance of any Grand Slam.
Season Format
Recent Champions
Most recent first. Seasons still in progress are marked.
History
The tournament began in 1905 as the Australasian Championships and for decades was the least attended of the majors, isolated by distance and scheduled awkwardly — it was held in December until 1987. Many leading players simply did not enter.
The move to Melbourne Park in 1988, from grass at Kooyong to hard courts, and the shift to a January date transformed it. Novak Djokovic has won it ten times, more than any player has won any single major in the Open era.
It has been the most willing of the four to change: the first with a retractable roof, the first to use electronic line calling exclusively, and the first to adopt the ten-point final-set tie-break.
Governance
The tournament is owned and run by Tennis Australia, under the Grand Slam Board and the ITF.