Plexicushion is a brand of acrylic-based hardcourt tennis surface and one of the surface types used on the professional Association of Tennis Professionals and Women's Tennis Association tours. It is manufactured and sold by the sports surfaces division of California Products Corporation, a company based in Andover, Massachusetts, United States.
On May 30, 2007, the Australian Open and Tennis Australia announced Plexicushion as the new Australian Open surface, replacing the Rebound Ace surface that had been in use since Melbourne Park was opened in 1988. The surface was installed in time for the 2008 Australian Open, and was accompanied by a change in surfaces at the lead-up tournaments to the Australian Open. [1] [2] [3] The brand was used at the Australian Open from 2008 to 2019, before being replaced by GreenSet for the 2020 event.
A similar hardcourt surface, called "Plexibave", is in use at the Indian Wells Masters tournament.
A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be used to create a tennis court, each with its own characteristics which affect the playing style of the game.
The US Open Tennis Championships, commonly called the US Open, is a hardcourt tennis tournament held annually in Queens, New York. Since 1987, the US Open has been chronologically the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the year. The other three, in chronological order, are the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. The US Open starts on the last Monday of August and continues for two weeks, with the middle weekend coinciding with the US Labor Day holiday. The tournament is one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, originally known as the U.S. National Championship, for which men's singles and men's doubles were first played in August 1881. It is the only Grand Slam that was not affected by cancellation due to World War I and World War II, nor interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. The Australian Open starts in the middle of January and continues for two weeks coinciding with the Australia Day holiday. It features men's and women's singles; men's, women's, and mixed doubles; junior's championships; and wheelchair, legends, and exhibition events. Until 1987, it was played on grass courts, but since then two types of hardcourt surfaces have been used: green-coloured Rebound Ace up to 2007 and blue Plexicushion since 2008.
The Grand Slam in tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in a calendar year. In doubles, a team may accomplish the Grand Slam playing together or a player may achieve it with different partners. Winning all four major championships consecutively but not within the same calendar year is referred to as a "non-calendar-year Grand Slam", while winning the four majors at any point during the course of a career is known as a "Career Grand Slam".
A hardcourt is a surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the surface and mark the playing lines, while providing some cushioning. Historically, hardwood surfaces were also in use in indoor settings, similar to an indoor basketball court, but these surfaces are rare now.
Rod Laver Arena is a multipurpose arena located within Melbourne Park, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The arena is the main venue for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the calendar year.
Rebound Ace is a cushioned tennis hardcourt composed of polyurethane rubber, fiberglass, and other materials on top of an asphalt or reinforced concrete base. It is manufactured and sold by California Products Corporation's Sports Surfaces division, a company based in Andover, Massachusetts, United States.
A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Clay courts are made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate depending on the tournament.
The Hobart International is a women's professional tennis tournament held at the Hobart International Tennis Centre in Hobart, Australia. The tournament was founded in 1994 as the Tasmanian International Open, it forms a part of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and is classed as an International tournament. It is competed on outdoor hardcourts, and is held in the run-up to the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, the Australian Open as part of the Australian Open Series.
DecoTurf is a brand of tennis hardcourt constructed from layers of acrylic resin, rubber, silica, and other materials on top of an asphalt or concrete base. It is manufactured by the sports surfaces division of California Products Corporation, based in Andover, Massachusetts.
The 2008 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 96th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 through 27 January 2008.
The Brisbane International established in 2009 is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hardcourts in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. It is a WTA Premier tournament of the WTA Tour and was part of the ATP World Tour 250 series of the ATP World Tour until 2019, when it was dropped from the ATP Tour.
The Masters France was a professional tennis exhibition round-robin singles-only tournament, played on indoor hard courts, specifically Plexicushion. It was held in December at the Palais des Sports de Toulouse in Toulouse, France, in 2008 and 2009. The eight players qualified for the event were the top seven French players, based on their performance in the four Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournaments held in France, the Marseille Open 13, the Metz Open de Moselle, the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, and the Paris BNP Paribas Masters, and an eighth French player receiving a wild card.
The 1979 Australian Hard Court Championships, also known as the Tasmanian Open, was a men's tennis tournament that was played on the Grand Prix tennis circuit from 1 January until 7 January 1979. The event was held at the Doman Tennis Centre in Hobart, Australia and was played on outdoor hardcourts, this was the 35th edition. First-seeded Guillermo Vilas won the singles title and earned $8,000 first-prize money.
GreenSet is a supplier of acrylic hardcourt surfaces used in many professional tennis events run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tours. It is made of layers of acrylic resin and silica on top of an asphalt or concrete base, for permanent facilities, or on top of a wooden platform, for venues with occasional use. The company is based in Barcelona, Spain.
Hiroki Moriya is a Japanese tennis player. He has won three ATP Challenger Tour singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 143 on 5 January 2015.
The Australian Hard Court Championships was a former professional tennis tournament established in 1938 and held until 2008. The event was played on clay courts until 1977 when it switched to hard courts. The tournament was a combined event for men and women until the end of the 1980s. In 2009, Tennis Australia merged the separate men's and women's tournaments into a new combined tournament called the Brisbane International.