History
In 1997, the Corel WTA Tour created a new event –played on outdoor hardcourts– in Gold Coast, Queensland. [2] The Tier III Gold Coast Classic was added to the three preexisting tournaments of Auckland, Sydney and Hobart, and became one of the two events held in the first week of the women's calendar, parallel to the men's Adelaide tournament. Various players, among which Ai Sugiyama, Justine Henin, Patty Schnyder or Venus Williams found success over the years at the low tier tune-up event for the Australian Open. The Gold Coast Classic became the Thalgo Australian Women's Hardcourts in 1998, took the sponsorship of Uncle Tobys in 2003, becoming Uncle Tobys Hardcourts, and changed names again in 2006 to Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts. [2]
Meanwhile, the ATP International Series Australian Hard Court Championships in Adelaide, which had evolved into the AAPT Championships in 1999, Next Generation Hardcourts in 2005, and Next Generation Adelaide International in 2006 had become one of the three stops of the calendar's first week, alongside the Qatar Open of Doha, and the Chennai Open in India.
As both the men's and the women's tour calendars were to undergo important changes from 2008 to 2009, with the WTA inaugurating its new roadmap of International and Premier tournaments, and the ATP Tour becoming the ATP World Tour, with new Masters 1000, 500 and 250 events, it was decided in 2006 to merge the Next Generation Adelaide International and the Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts into a larger ATP-WTA joint tournament in Brisbane, leading, similarly to the joint Medibank International Sydney, to the Australian Open. [3] Tennis Australia chief Steve Wood commented on the shift: "One of the reasons we are doing this is that there's a rise of more lucrative overseas tournaments in the lead-up to the Australian Open offering increasingly attractive alternatives to the top players looking to prepare for the first Grand Slam. [...] So we really wanted them to invest in having them continue to prepare here in Australia, on the road to the Australian Open." [3] The first Brisbane International took place in Brisbane's newly built Tennyson Tennis Centre – and its Patrick Rafter-named Centre Court – in January 2009. [4] [5] In time for the 2012 event the tournament was promoted to a premier event on the WTA tour. [6]
Following the 2019 edition, the tournament was no longer recognised as an ATP event, due to the creation of the ATP Cup (played at the same venue). The tournament continued as WTA-sanctioned event for female tennis players. [7]
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brisbane International did not proceed, with the WTA Premier Event moved to Adelaide for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons.
The Brisbane International returned in 2024, expanding to 48 players in WTA singles draw, 32 players in the ATP singles draw, and 24 pairs in both men's and women's doubles. [8]
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Daniil Medvedev 
Lloyd Glasspool 
Jean-Julien Rojer 
Hsieh Su-wei 
Jeļena Ostapenko 
