The Australian Open Series is a selection of tennis tournaments held annually prior to the start of the Australian Open in Melbourne. In 2023, there are five official Australian Open Series tournaments held across Australia in preparation for the first Grand Slam of the year, as designated by Tennis Australia. [1]
The United Cup has been announced to launch in 2023 as a lead up event to the Australian Open. The concept of the United Cup is to be a multi-gender tournament where players form teams to represent their countries. The United Cup was brought in to replace the unpopular ATP Cup in the Australian summer of tennis schedule. [2]
The Brisbane International is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts in Brisbane, Queensland. It formed part of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tours. It was held annually in January at the Queensland Tennis Centre, between 2009 and 2019 before reverting to a WTA only event for 2020 to accommodate the ATP Cup which would be played in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth. The tournament was not seen in 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was dropped entirely from Tennis Australia's schedule for 2023. [3] The Tournament returned to both the ATP and WTA calendars in 2024.
The Canberra International will form part of the Australian Open Series schedule in 2023. The tournament will be an ATP Challenger 100 event for the men's draw, and an ITF 60 event for the women's draw. [4] The event took on greater status amongst the Australian summer schedule for 2023, whilst returning from a 3 year hiatus due to the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season and then the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2024, the event is an ATP Challenger 125 and a WTA Challenger 125.
The Adelaide International forms part of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. The inaugural tournament was staged in January 2020 and took place at the upgraded Memorial Drive Park facility. In 2022 and 2023 there were two events ("Adelaide International 1" and "Adelaide International 2") held in consecutive weeks in the lead up to the Australian Open. In 2024, with the return of the Brisbane International in Week 1, the Adelaide International returned to a single tournament in the week leading into the Australian Open.
The Hobart International is a women's professional tennis tournament held at the Hobart International Tennis Centre in Hobart, Australia. Held since 1994, it forms a part of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and is classed as an International tournament (previously Tier IV). 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.
The Kooyong Classic is an exhibition tournament played in the lead-up to the Australian Open. The format for the Classic altered in accordance with the number of players participating, though in most years it featured both men's and women's singles matches. Kooyong was the original home of the Australian Open before the tournament moved to Melbourne Park in 1988.
The Australian Open is one of four Grand Slam events on the international tennis schedule. It is held at Melbourne Park in Melbourne in the second half of January. It is the official Grand Slam of the Asia-Pacific.
The ATP Cup was introduced in 2020 as a representative multi-city tournament where men's players form teams to represent their countries. The ATP Cup was initially supposed to be an annual tournament played across the cities of Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. [5] The initial season in 2020 was played under this format, before the COVID-19 pandemic meant the tournament was staged in Melbourne in 2021 in the immediate lead up to the 2021 Australian Open, [6] before the tournament was staged entirely in Sydney in 2022.
The ATP Cup lasted 3 editions before being discontinued after the 2022 edition due to poor attendance and a general lack of popularity amongst fans and players alike. It was replaced by a mixed-sex national team tournament known as the United Cup for 2023. [7]
The Hopman Cup was an eight-nation tournament featuring one male and one female player representing their country. The tournament was originally played at the Burswood Dome before being moved to the Perth Arena in 2014. It has featured several of the top players, including Roger Federer, who won the last edition for Switzerland with compatriot Belinda Bencic.
The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open) was played in the lead-up to the Australian Open for both men and women. The tournament was removed from the calendar in 2020 to make way for the ATP Cup. [8] The tournament returned for a one-off edition in 2022, known as the Sydney Tennis Classic. [9]
The World Tennis Challenge was a three-night exhibition tournament held in the week before the Australian Open in Adelaide, South Australia. The tournament was created by a consortium of past players. It usually had four teams of two players, a 'legend' and a current player were paired into areas e.g. Americas or represent their countries. The current players played each other in a best of 3 match with a match tiebreaker for a 3rd set. The legends played a pro set, and the doubles if needed was a normal set with no a rules before a super tie break.
In 2021 most of the usual tournaments were either relocated to Melbourne Park or not held at all, as a result of international and domestic travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 ATP Cup was moved to Melbourne Park but cut to 12 teams, whilst two WTA tournaments (the Gippsland Trophy and Yarra Valley Classic) and two ATP tournaments (the Great Ocean Road Open and Murray River Open) were held at the park in the lead-up to the 2021 Australian Open. An additional WTA tournament, the Grampians Trophy was later added for players who had to undergo strict quarantine measures upon arrival in Australia, serving as preparation for the Australian Open. Two other WTA tournaments, the Phillip Island Trophy and Adelaide International, were staged in the last week and week after the Open. All of the new alternative tournaments except one (sans Adelaide) take place in Melbourne Park but are named after various places in the state of Victoria.
In 2022, the series also had an abnormal calendar. Two new tournaments were created in Melbourne Park for the WTA and one new tournament was created for the ATP. The tournaments were named Melbourne Summer Set 1 and Melbourne Summer Set 2. Men did not have a tournament for the Melbourne Summer Set 2.
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 three types of hardcourt surfaces have been used: green-coloured Rebound Ace up to 2007 and blue Plexicushion from 2008 to 2019. Since 2020, it has been played on blue GreenSet.
The Hopman Cup is an international tennis tournament that plays mixed-gender teams on a country-by-country basis. It was first held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, played on indoor hardcourt, before being replaced on the calendar in 2020 by the now defunct ATP Cup. The tournament was played in an eight-team format, with the exception for the years 1990-1995, with twelve teams competing. It returned in July 2023 in Nice, France, played on outdoor clay, with six teams invited to participate.
Tennis Australia Limited is the governing body for tennis in Australia. It is owned by Australian states and territories. The association organizes national and international tennis tournaments including the Australian Open, Australian Open Series, Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, ATP Cup, and Australian Pro Tour. In addition, the association takes the responsibility to facilitate tennis at all levels from grassroots to elite development. Tennis Australia's state-based member associates carry out the promotion, management, and development of Tennis within Australia. Other than that, it administers amateur tournaments and youth development programs.
The Sydney International, formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, is a professional tennis tournament in Sydney, Australia. The tournament was played annually at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre in Sydney Olympic Park. It is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world, dating to 1885. In 2020 and 2021, the tournament was briefly replaced by the ATP Cup, before briefly returning in 2022 and has since been replaced in both men's and women's calendars by the United Cup.
Tennis in Australia refers to the sport of tennis played in Australia. Tennis in Australia has been administered by Tennis Australia since 1904.
The Brisbane International established in 2009 is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hardcourts in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. It is a WTA 500 tournament and ATP 250 tournament.
This page covers all the important events in the sport of tennis in 2012. Primarily, it provides the results of notable tournaments throughout the year on both the ATP and WTA Tours, the Davis Cup, and the Fed Cup.
This page covers all the important events in the sport of tennis in 2013. Primarily, it provides the results of notable tournaments throughout the year on both the ATP and WTA Tours, the Davis Cup, and the Fed Cup.
Storm Hunter is an Australian professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 119 on 18 October 2021, and a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 1 on 6 November 2023, becoming the third Australian woman to hold the top spot.
Kimberly Birrell is an Australian professional tennis player. Birrell reached a career-high WTA ranking of 100 on 18 September 2023. She has won five singles titles and one doubles title on the ITF Circuit.
Jaimee Fourlis is an Australian tennis player of Greek descent. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 147, achieved on 18 July 2022, and a highest doubles ranking of world No. 138, reached on 2 March 2020. She has won eight ITF singles titles and six ITF doubles titles.
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.
The ATP Cup was an international outdoor hard court men's tennis team tournament, which ran from 2020 to 2022. The tournament was played across one or three Australian cities over ten days in the lead up to the Australian Open, and featured teams from 12, 16 or 24 countries. The event was the first ATP team competition since the ATP World Team Cup, which was held in Düsseldorf from 1978 to 2012.
The Adelaide International is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts in Adelaide, South Australia at the Memorial Drive Tennis Centre. The tournament is held in January or February, and forms part of the WTA and ATP tours. The event is part of the lead-up to the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, the Australian Open.
Melbourne Summer Set was a set of two simultaneous tennis tournaments organized by Tennis Australia at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia for the first time in response to the cancellation of several warm-up tournaments normally scheduled before the Australian Open, including the Brisbane International, Hobart International, ATP Auckland Open, and the WTA Auckland Open, because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The series consisted of 2022 Melbourne Summer Set 1 and 2022 Melbourne Summer Set 2. It was not continued in 2023.
The United Cup is an international hard court tennis competition featuring mixed-gender teams from 18 countries. The first event was held in December 2022 through January 2023. The event is played across multiple Australian cities over 11 days in the leadup to the Australian Open. It is also the first mixed-gender team event to offer both ATP rankings and WTA rankings points to its players, with a maximum 500 points for the winners.
The 2023 United Cup was the first edition of the United Cup, an international outdoor hard court mixed-gender team tennis competition held by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Serving as the opener for the 2023 ATP Tour and the 2023 WTA Tour, it was held from 29 December 2022 to 8 January 2023 at three venues in the Australian cities of Brisbane, Perth, and Sydney. It was also the first mixed-gender team event to offer both ATP rankings and WTA rankings points to its players: a player was able to win a maximum of 500 points.
