Sunday 27 January 2019
Australian Open 2019 – By the numbers
For the past two weeks, the world’s top tennis players have excited and delighted fans at Melbourne Park.
By the numbers brings you all the facts, stats and need-to-know details of Australian Open 2019.
All data as at 9:53 pm AEDT, Sunday 27 January 2019 unless specified.
On-court action
World No.1 Novak Djokovic has become the first man in history to win seven Australian Open titles after defeating world No.2 Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-2 6-3
Naomi Osaka became the first Japanese player, male or female, to win the Australian Open after defeating Petra Kvitova (CZE) 7-6(2) 5-7 6-4. This was Osaka’s second Grand Slam win and she becomes the first-ever Asian world No.1 on Monday. Osaka was presented the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup by Australian Open 2014 champion Li Na
French duo Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) and Nicolas Mahut (FRA) defeated Australia’s John Peers and Henri Kontinen (FIN) 6-4 7-6(1) to win the men’s doubles title, presented on court by Rod Laver and Roy Emerson. The Melbourne win completes a career Grand Slam for the pair
Samantha Stosur (AUS) and Shuai Zhang (CHN) defeated [2] Timea Babos (HUN) and Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) 6-3 6-4 to win the women’s doubles
Rajeev Ram (USA) won his first Grand Slam doubles title with world No.1 doubles player Barbora Krejcikova (CZE) to take the mixed doubles title over Australian pair Astra Sharma and John-Patrick Smith 7-6(3) 6-1
Top seed Lorenzo Musetti (ITA) won the junior boys’ singles title defeating [13] Emilio Nava (USA) 4-6 6-2 7-6(12)
No.1 seed Clara Tauson (DEN) defeated Leylah Annie Fernandez (CAN) 6-4 6-3 to win the girls’ singles title
Third seeds Natsumi Kawaguchi (JPN) and Adrienn Nagy (HUN) defeated [8] Chloe Beck (USA) and Emma Navarro (USA) 6-4 6-4 to claim the junior girls’ doubles title
Jonas Forejtek (CZE) and Dalibor Svrcina (CZE) defeated [4] Cannon Kingsley (USA) and Emilio Nava (USA) 7-6(5) 6-4 to claim the junior boys’ doubles title
Dylan Alcott (AUS) won the quad wheelchair singles title for a record fifth consecutive year 6-4 7-6(2) over David Wagner (USA). Alcott also teamed up with Heath Davidson (AUS) to win the quad wheelchair doubles title
Gustavo Fernandez (ARG) and Diede De Groot (NED) took out the men’s and women’s wheelchair singles titles respectively. Second seeds Joachim Gerard (BEL) and Stefan Olsson (SWE) won the men’s wheelchair doubles, while top seeded Netherland duo De Groot (NED) and Aniek Van Koot (NED) claimed the women’s wheelchair doubles
Forty-eight nations were represented among the 256 players competing in main draw singles. With 31 players in action the USA was the most represented nation overall followed by Australia with 22 players
A total of 769 players from 71 nations competed across all events, including juniors, qualifying, wheelies and legends
Marius Copil (ROU) sent down the fastest serve of the tournament so far at 231km/h
Milos Raonic (CAN) has served the most aces of any player in the men’s draw so far with 132 to his name
Venus Williams (USA) posted the fastest serve in the women’s draw at 199km/h
Australian Open 2019 women’s champion Naomi Osaka (JPN) served the most aces of any female player with 59 in total
Twenty-two Australians took part in the main draw singles, with ten players advancing to the second round, six into the third round before Ash Barty became the first Australian female to reach the women’s quarterfinals in a decade
Australians featured in every Australian Open 2019 doubles final. Sam Stosur (Qld) and Zhang Shuai won the women’s doubles; Astra Sharma (WA) and John-Patrick Smith (Qld) finished runner up in the mixed doubles as did John Peers (Vic) and partner Henri Kontinen (FIN) in the men’s doubles final.
Attendance
In 2019, a record 780,000 plus fans shared in the excitement of the Australian Open, smashing the previous attendance record of 743,667 set in 2018
For the third time in the tournament’s history, attendance in the first week surpassed 500,000 fans with 537,262 attendees, smashing the previous record of 505,443 for Australian Open 2018
Coopers Saturday on the middle weekend of the tournament was the busiest of any day/night in tournament history, with 93,178 fans on site at Melbourne Park
Eight sessions drew a record crowd including the first Tuesday day, first Wednesday day and night, first Thursday day and night, first Friday day and night, first Saturday day, first Sunday, second Monday day and second Wednesday day and night.
The FAST4 Showdown in Sydney on Monday 7 January saw Nick Kyrgios and John Millman take on Rafael Nadal and Milos Raonic in a blockbuster event held at Qudos Bank Arena in Homebush for the first time. The event showcased the innovative FAST4 format developed by Tennis Australia and launched in 2015.
The seventh annual Kids Tennis Day on Saturday 12 January saw Novak Djokovic, Victoria Azarenka, Naomi Osaka, Milos Raonic, Grigor Dimitrov and Hyeon Chung take part in the Rod Laver Arena Spectacular. The players delighted young fans with some fast, furious and fun tennis action as they showed off their skills in a series of stunts and drills. A total of 16,129 attended the event at Melbourne Park
Fans at the AO Live Stage were entertained by headline music acts DMAs, Flight Facilities, Confidence Man, Dean Lewis, Jet, Birds of Tokyo, Ballpark Music, Craig David, Bastille, Angus and Julia Stone and more
During the tournament, more than 50,000 fans attended the free AO Festival on Upper Terrace, enjoying the best of Melbourne dining and drinking options
Famous faces attended the event including: Dame Anna Wintour, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Baz Luhrmann, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, The Hon Julie Bishop, Eric Bana, Mark Webber, Eddie McGuire, Jeanne Pratt, Carla Zampatti, Ita Buttrose, Turia Pitt, Andy Lee, Dame Elaine Paige, Dave Hughes, Natalie Imbruglia, Ian Thorpe, Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma, Olympia Valance, Alexander Skarsgard, Mumford and Sons, Craig David, JET, Angus and Julie Stone, Flight Facilities, Wayne Carey, Mack Horton, Shaynna Blaze, Nathan Brown, Joseph Deng, Peter Bol, Anthony Callea, Tim Campbell, Michelle Payne, Nathan Buckley, Georgie Gardiner, David Campbell, Deborah Knight, Jimmy Barnes, Joel Creasey, Tina Arena, Kelly Gale, Marc Murphy, David Warner, Pia Miller, George Calombaris, Jason Collins, Rodger Corser, Sigrid Thornton, Peter Hitchener, Jo Hall, Emma Hawkins, Steph Claire Smith, Shane Delia, Ricky Ponting, Peter Helliar, Jonathan Brown, Brendan Fevola, Bianca Chatfield, Kit Willow, Tim Robards, Anna Heinrich and Nathan Brown.
The tournament held its fourth edition of the Australian Open Inspirational Series as part of women’s semifinals day. Dame Anna Wintour was the special guest at the event. Other guests included Baz Luhrmann, Julie Bishop, Ita Buttrose, Kim Clijsters, Turia Pitt and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce.
Alexis Van Maanen sung the national anthem prior to the women’s final.
Ryan Gonzalez from the Jersey Boys musical sang the national anthem prior to the men’s final.
Australian tennis great Pat Cash was honoured at the annual Legends Lunch. Cash was joined at the celebratory event by fellow legends of the sport including Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Frank Sedgman, Neale Fraser, Ashley Cooper, Roy Emerson, Martina Navratilova, Lindsay Davenport, Mark Philippoussis, John Fitzgerald and more.
Media
More than 530 journalists and 175 photographers provided detailed coverage of the Australian Open, from 57 different countries
Over 1,500 broadcast personnel descended on Melbourne Park this year, there were 979 broadcast personnel including 571 internationals, 369 domestic, plus 39 news access from around the world.
There were also 475 staff and freelance crew plus 24 talent and 56 contractors across the host broadcast and world feed
More than 2,000 press conferences took place during the tournament
More than 45 colourful media opportunities took place across the two weeks. Highlights included Karolina Pliskova boating down the Yarra, Stefanos Tsitsipas meeting chef compatriot George Colombaris, Frances Tiafoe in iconic Hosier Lane, Fabio Fognini trying his hand at pizza throwing Denis Shapovalov, Serena Williams meeting and greeting young Aussie girls representing the tennis player pathway.
From the Men’s and Women’s Singles Championships, the Game Insight Group analysed:
• 46,315 points of scoring data
• 228,275 shots of ball tracking data
• 824.4km of player movement data
Host broadcast
We’re celebrating a birthday – 5 years of the Tennis Australia Host Broadcast, TA took over production in the summer of 2015 and we’ve delivered nearly 50 events with full live broadcast coverage since then.
Over 1,500 broadcast personnel descended on Melbourne Park this year; there were 979 broadcast personnel including 571 internationals, 369 domestic, plus 39 news access from around the world. There were also 475 staff and freelance crew plus 24 talent and 56 contractors across the host broadcast and world feed.
Once again we offered continued live coverage of all courts on-site; including all 13 match courts during AO Qualifying and up to 16 match courts during Main Draw. Almost 900 matches were covered live across all draws – main draw singles, doubles and mixed doubles plus legends, wheelchair and juniors.
Additionally, the primary practice courts on-site also featured live coverage, totaling 22 courts with live cameras at any one time across Melbourne Park
We offered additional commentary on 1573 Arena this year – now up to 5 courts of commentary across the event including RLA, MCA, MA, 1573 and COURT 3
Host broadcasts commentary team featured world renowned and leading tennis experts including Mark Petchey, John Fitzgerald, John Millman, Casey Dellaqua, Louise Pleming, Bojana Bobusic, Roger Rasheed, Jacco Eltingh, Wayne Ferreira, Josh Eagle, Robbie Koenig, Nick Lester, Liz Smylie, Peter Donegan, Geoff Masters and many, many more
The coverage also featured electronic review on all courts and all feeds – up to 16 courts in 2019.
This year we had a total of 148 cameras across the HB – not counting the 110 x 4D replay cameras installed in RLA or the many Hawkeye cameras right across the site: our cranes were back – around the grounds and in MA, our NetCams were back – RLA, MCA, MA, our 180 degree Eyecam built into the hydraulic umpires chair was back – RLA, our GCams were back – RLA, MCA, MA, our Spidercam system was back – RLA. We had two new beauty cameras – MA balcony and GSO, we undertook multiple helicopter shoots this year – two pre-recorded during the event and two live shoots on finals weekend (a Grand Slam first!)
We also worked closely with our domestic partner, Nine Network, to introduce a new WireCam that flew 390 meters across the site, providing some of the most stunning vistas the event has ever seen
Our new graphics package from last year also returned bigger and better than ever before and with even more virtual and augmented reality graphics on the top three arenas.
This year also saw the integration of new statistics and analysis from the Game Insight Group, including win predictor and swing, physical battle and physical journey featuring throughout all of the host and world feeds. These new statistics providing more context and intelligence around the physical battle the players took to get to the later stage of the tournament.
There was also a magical moment each morning when all of our six main host feeds rolled our opener and court transitions synchronised at the same time
We introduced a brand new walk on in RLA that was another world first: concept developed by Tennis Australia host broadcast with elements sourced from various technical and coverage partners, launched on Instagram by Roger Federer before the tournament even started, total of 100 special LED digital banners – each 622mm x 1990mm, 35mm deep and 1.8mm pixel pitch, 1080 pixels tall.
Domestic broadcast
Nine has been ranked no.1 network in Australia both weeks of the AO
Channel Nine saw an average audience of 1.58m during the Women’s Final, with a peak of 2.1 million people – the highest rating program of 2019
Channel Nine’s cumulative reach for Days 1-12 of AO 2019 is 12.4 million viewers on TV
This year there were an additional 60+ hours of coverage, direct from the AO every morning via the Today Show
There have been over 100 million streaming minutes on Nine’s online channels across days 1-13, smashing last year’s total before the end of the tournament.
International broadcast
AO 2019 has been aired live in more than 220 territories on more than 75 different TV channels, reaching more than 900 million homes daily
All 16 main draw courts broadcast online via our broadcasters Nine, SKY New Zealand, iQIYI in China, Eurosport in Europe and ESPN in the Americas
In Japan, with Naomi Osaka as the women’s Singles champion and the return of Kei Nishikori, there has been a significant increase in the number of people tuning into the coverage shown on NHK. Osaka’s matches average 5 million viewers, with the final expected to average 10 million viewers.
In China, there has been an increase in aggregate hours viewed year on year of +25.9% through our broadcasters CCTV and iQIYI, along with provincial networks Beijing TV, Guangdong TV and Shanghai TV, showing live and delayed coverage every day. Over 4 million people watched the Women’s Doubles semi-final, with the final expected to average over 5 million viewers.
European coverage provided by Eurosport, as well as Czech TV, SSR/SRG (Switzerland), RTVS (Slovakia), Servus TV (Austria) and BBC (UK – highlights). Eurosport enjoyed double digit growth in week 1.
In sub-Saharan Africa, SuperSport has seen new Free-To-Air highlights coverage with highlights in up to eight territories, including Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana.
Live coverage of the AO has been available on selected airlines and cruise lines via Sport 24 – with over 700 enabled aircraft, 50 enabled ships and a combined 14 million+ potential monthly audience
All the key stories of each day, on and off the court, have been aired on thousands of TV channels and online portals around the world through footage provided by news agencies including 13 European agencies; Perform (Omnisport); SNTV; Reuters and JSNA (Japan Sports News Association)
BBC Radio broadcast live everyday to the UK audience, as well as TalkSport throughout Europe and new domestic radio broadcasters SEN and stations via Macquarie Media.
AO Juniors, Legends and Wheelchair broadcast by: ESPN International (Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands), iQIYI, WOWOW, Eurosport, Supersport, with Nine broadcasting the Men’s Wheelchair Finals Live on their primary channel.
Digital walls
850 square metres of digital LED screens were used across all three stadiums at Melbourne Park – Rod Laver Arena (400), Margaret Court Arena (250) and Melbourne Arena (200)
More than 2214 LED screen modules used across the three arenas
More than 200 moving lights were installed around the Rod Laver Arena catwalk, at the top of stadium aisles and on the court. A light beam effect filled the entire stadium and interplay with 360 degree video elements across the digital walls as part of the nightly pre-match entertainment and ceremonies
Over 200 moving lights were installed around Margaret Court Arena for the AO Draw program and Fortnite event
Customised digital wall video content featured the player match-ups each night
More than 350 content elements designed and produced specifically for the 360 degree digital wall canvas
Expanded production across on-court ceremonies on opening night, Australia Day, Inspirational Women’s Day and pre-match to women’s and men’s singles finals
The Emirates EK-Cam in Rod Laver Arena allowed fans with smartphones in hand to control the arena cameras to trigger real-time looping vides from their seat and post on their social platforms.
Nightly Rod Laver Arena program to entertain patrons in the lead up to the first match. The program featured tennis legends and celebrities along with recapping the day’s play and preview that night’s matches.
In a world first, live 360 8K 60fps VR experience was available for the Finals, commencing with the quarterfinals. The 8K experience allowed Oculus VR headset users to switch between 3 unique 180 and 360 camera locations as well as experience highlights and features presentation in 360.
Website, apps, mobile and AO Radio
The top five countries visiting the website were: Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany
The Ausopen.com website and mobile apps were visited by 7,274,676 total users with an average time spent of 5 min 27 seconds.
The top three articles were Record $62.5 million in prize money for Australian Open 2019, ‘Massive regrets’: Roger rues end of reign and Rafa brings Tsitsipas story to abrupt end
The most popular players on the website were Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) with 362,997 page views, followed by Novak Djokovic (SRB) 349,041, Rafael Nadal (ESP) 347,991, Roger Federer (SUI) 327,133 and Danielle Collins (USA) 323,381
AO Radio had 294,483 listener sessions totalling 119,635 hours broadcast on ausopen.com and official mobile apps. In addition it was broadcast across the Vision Australia network, ATP Tennis Radio, TalkSport, ESPN digital radio, Macquarie News, Tunein as well as locally on 99.7 FM.
Social media
This audience growth helped Instagram become the most engaged with channel – 4.3 million likes and 39K comments
AO Twitter had 41.2 million video views, 1.4 million likes, 466K retweets.
The #AusOpen hashtag was used 528K times across Twitter
Most popular post on Instagram: “Finally. The rematch of the longest Grand Slam final in tennis history will take place on Sunday. ” https://www.instagram.com/p/BtDe7WHne3o/ (87.1K likes)
Most popular post on Facebook: “Let’s hear it for our 2019 #AusOpen champion Naomi Osaka 大坂なおみ” https://www.facebook.com/48160623614/posts/10157126234123615 (35K like)
Most popular post on Twitter: “.@Naomi_Osaka_ is the Australian Open 2019 champion ? She def. Petra Kvitova 7-6(2) 5-7 6
” https://twitter.com/AustralianOpen/status/1089119104638701568 (36.6K likes)
Most popular celebrity post on Instagram: “What a day at the Australian open. ❤??? An amazing way to finish the Australian summer. Forever grateful??❤#ausopen”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BszuO_cguuX/
Video and YouTube (until 26 January)
There were 1,368 videos uploaded to ausopen.com and AO Youtube
There were 19,436,900 views on You Tube which added up to 72,000,000 minutes watched or 8.2 centuries
There were over 19,436,900 million views on You Tube during the Australian Open 2019
Most popular clip of the tournament on You Tube was “The upset of the AO! Tsitsipas’ winning tiebreak v Federer (4R) | Australian Open 2019”
The top video on ausopen.com was Stefanos Tsitsipas v Rafael Nadal match highlights (SF)
There were 134 million GIPHY GIF views in January
Tournament operations
The Yonex stringers hut restrung more than 5800 racquets, using more than 69 km of string
Serena William had the most racquets restrung of all players in the main draw, sending 74 racquets to the stringers
360 ballkids aged between 12 and 15 years of age from Australia and overseas will participate participated including 293 from Victoria, six from Queensland, ten from New South Wales, six from South Australia, three from Tasmania, three from Western Australia, 1 from the ACT
38 ballkids are international: 20 from Korea, 10 from India, six from China (China Open) two from France (Roland Garros)
Fifteen-year-olds Sarah Lemmon-Warde (Brookfield, Brisbane, Qld) and Blake Drury (Wheelers Hill, Melbourne, Vic) were named the top two ballkids of Australian Open 2019
Players were transported by a fleet of 130 Kia cars during the tournament with more than 400,000 kilometres covered over 21,000 trips by more than 300 drivers and more than 20 operational staff
There was a total of 361 chair and line umpires officiating at the tournament including 117 from overseas representing 34 countries, and 134 from interstate.
Community tennis
Approximately 1500 ANZ Tennis Hot Shots participants played on Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Arena, show courts and multiple outside courts ahead of the day sessions during the tournament
More than 1000 members from 22 regional ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Community Play tennis clubs across Victoria were invited to spend the day at the tennis to mark ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Day on Thursday 17 January. Each club had the opportunity to meet ANZ Tennis ambassadors Dylan Alcott and Alicia Molik
More than 160 ANZ Tennis Hot Shots players had the opportunity to toss the coin for a main draw singles match during the tournament
20 players appeared at Autograph Island at the AO Ballpark, including top players Carla Suarez Navaro (ESP), Borna Coric (CRO), Diego Schwartzman (ARG), David Goffin (BEL), Daria Kasatkina (RUS), Camilla Giorgi (ITA) and Australian doubles player John Peers (Vic)
Six Fitbit Cardio Tennis showcases took place across the tournament.
Felix Sanford from Randwick, Sydney was announced as the 2018 ANZ Tennis Hot Shot of the Year on Rod Laver Arena. He received the honour from Australian tennis legend Rod Laver AC MBE, ANZ Tennis Hot Shots ambassador Alicia Molik and ANZ Head of Marketing Carolyn Bendall
ANZ Tennis Hot Shot player Elizabeth Richardson joined former Australian Open champion Li Na on Rod Laver Arena to help present Naomi Osaka with her first Grand Slam title during the women’s singles final presentation
ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Day saw 5488 kids came to the tennis for free thanks to ANZ
Skyler Sahely from Melbourne, went viral with his Michael Jackson dance moves during his coin toss with his video almost reaching 1 million views online
40 teachers from across Australia participated in the Tennis for Primary and Secondary school conferences celebrating their contribution to health and physical education
AO Ballpark and Kids
The seventh annual Kids Tennis Day saw almost 13,000 people take over Melbourne Park for the day
Kids Tennis Day attracted the likes of Novak Djokovic, Victoria Azarenka, Naomi Osaka, Milos Raonic, Grigor Dimitrov, and Hyeon Chung plus popular entertainer Guy Sebastian
Over 25,000 kids picked up a racquet and jumped on the ANZ Tennis Hot Shots clay courts in the Adventure Zone
Over 1600 hours were watched across 20 kids films at the AO Sports Film Festival
More than 5500 kids received their Kia Junior Drive license after successfully driving through the Kia course
32 stage shows and 160 competitions were held on the Adventure Zone main stage
Over 80,000 kids and their parents visited the AO Ballpark over the course of the Tournament
Partners
Rafael Nadal was once again the face of Kia, appearing in a TV commercial and handing over the fleet of 300 plus Kia cars for the official player transport the Wednesday before the tournament started.
New partners include for AO 2019 include: Luzhou Laojiao, Dunlop, L’Oreal Australia – Garnier and La Roche-Posay, Piper-Heidsieck, Uber, Infosys, DeRUCCI.
25,000 gift bags were given away at Garnier World, the first time Garnier has been back at the Australian Open in ten years.
500,000 La Roche-Posay sunscreen samples were given away. It’s the first year that La Roche-Posay has been the official sunscreen of the Australian Open.
Over a thousand Cala-Murray special packs were served at Hunky Dory Fish and Chips were served.
Entertainers delivers over 305 hours of music performances and dance at Grand Slam Oval.
The second ever AO Chef series was a huge success, at The Glasshouse opposite Rod Laver Arena. It was a very well received pop up event, with Duncan Welgemode, Jacques Reymond, Alejandro Saravia and IImone Zanoni all hosting massive numbers at The Glasshouse.
Approximately 25,000 kebabs were served at Biggie Smalls on Grand Slam Oval.
Champagne partner Piper-Heidsieck’s facility on Grand Slam Oval gave away 300 fans to guests throughout the tournament.
Coopers Saturday was a huge success, with Confidence Man and Total Giovanni pulling in close to 5000 fans. In total, 93,178 people attended Cooper’s Saturday, a record number for the Australian Open.
Emirates gave away approximately 2500 seat cushions on Emirates Day on the first Tuesday of the tournament.
Lavazza produced seven episodes of Coffee With A Legend. Legends that were interviewed included Andre Agassi, Todd Woodbridge and Carlos Moya.
Italian Partner Day on the first Wednesday tournament on January 16 saw Lavazza, Aperol and Barilla work together to celebrate La Dolce Vita.
ANZ upgraded 600 people across the first four days to Rod Laver Arena tickets. On ANZTHS day on Thursday January 17,548 kids came for free, thanks to ANZ.
Hospitality
Over 145,101 Haagen Dazs ice-creams were consumed
Close to 15,000 souvlakis were served at Hellenic Republic.
6,000 serves of Feta chips were consumed at Hellenic Republic.
18,370 Sushi Sushi packs were consumed
28,000 Gradi Pizzas were sold
Over 50,000 corporate meals were serves
Over 15,000 glasses of Piper-Hedsieck, the official champagne partner of the Australian Open, were served.
Over 160,000 Lavazza coffees were served.
Over 18,000 meals were served at the Australian pop up restaurants – Beijing Betty, Rockpool and Nobu
Over 5000 dumplings were Beijing Betty
14,591 serves of nachos at Mamasita on Grand Slam Oval.
#Open4All
#Open4All is designed to celebrate the intrinsic fairness and equality of the sport of tennis which welcomes everyone, regardless of race, religion, gender, sexuality or ability
On Thursday 24 January Anna Wintour led the Australian Open Inspirational Series, a symposium based on the theme of Empowering Leaders, alongside Turia Pitt, Kim Clijsters and Ita Buttrose
Anna Wintour was also honoured as Australian Open Woman of the Year at an on-court ceremony at Rod Laver Arena on women’s semifinal day
The Kia Ball Drive was back for a second year, giving fans the chance to purchase a used AO tennis ball for a gold coin donation from their stand in Garden Square, with proceeds going to AO Community Grants, supporting local tennis programs with a focus on improving diversity and inclusion across Australia. More than $30,000 has been raised from the balldrive through redistributing more than 16,000 used AO tennis balls back into the community.
In a Grand Slam first the Glam Slam was staged at Melbourne Park during the Australian Open. The Glam Slam is a LGBTQIA+ event, celebrating the diversity of our sport. More than 175 players from 30 countries are entered in the event.
The Australian Tennis Championships is Australia’s largest annual event for people with an intellectual impairment, with the finals and presentations staged at Melbourne Park on Australian Open finals weekend. More than 40 players participated in the championships with Aussie tennis legends Wally Masur and Pat Rafter presenting the trophies.
Kids on Court celebrated inclusion and diversity within tennis by inviting various communities from around Australia to have a hit on the AO courts. Kids on Court catered for various sessions for diverse groups including: Autism, wheelchair tennis, Aboriginal and Torres Straight islanders, cultural and linguistic diverse, persons with intellectual disabilities, deaf and hard of hearing, blind players and more.
The Australian Open 2019 hosted a free concert with headlining act Jon Stevens in support of Beyond Blue, the official charity partner of Tennis Australia. All proceeds raised at the event contributed to the great work Beyond Blue does with Mental Health.
