Inside Tennis: C'mon! 100 Years of the Glorious Oz Open

november-december 2004

By Matthew Cronin

Whether your taste runs to fair-dinkum Sydney sportsmen like Ken Rosewall or smash-mouth Adelaide lads like Lleyton Hewitt, Australia has produced a plethora of champions.

Considered the most fan friendly and certainly the hottest of the majors, the Australian Open will celebrate its 100th anniversary in January ‘05. While sadly it’s the least known of the majors to Americans due to its lack of network TV contracts, and because it’s played during the NFL playoffs, the tournament has a rich history of tremendous matches (remember beloved Aussie Patrick Rafter sweating through his shoes in a five-set semi to Agassi in ‘01?), fun -loving fans (the Swedish snowbirds) and zany occurrences (Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llodra doing a strip tease after they won the ‘04 doubles title).

The greatest tennis happening in the Southern Hemisphere began as The Australasian Championships, at the Warehouseman’s Cricket Ground in St Kilda Road, Melbourne, in 1905. In January, Tennis Australia (the country’s leading body) will host the 93rd staging of the event (due to interruption of the war years).

In 1927, it became the Australian Championships and in ‘69, the Australian Open. Since 1905, the Oz Open has been staged at six different venues: Melbourne [46 times], Sydney [17 times] Adelaide [14 times], Brisbane [eight times], Perth [three times] and New Zealand [twice] in ‘06 & ‘12.

In ‘72, it was decided to stage the tournament in one city each year, as opposed to visiting various states, and the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club was selected due to Melbourne attracting the biggest patronage. Due to little prize money being offered, many of the game’s elite skipped the tournament from ‘76-’82.

Melbourne Park (formerly Flinders Park) was constructed in time for the ‘88 Open to meet the demands of the evolving tournament that had outgrown Kooyong’s capacity. The move to Melbourne Park was an immediate success, with a 90 percent increase in attendance in ‘88 (266,436) over the previous year at Kooyong (140,000).

The tournament’s dates have been changed over the years (it was once the last major contested). After being played at the end of ‘85, the tournament skipped ‘86 altogether and was pushed to the beginning of ‘87,’86. It’s now held in the last two weeks of January, during Australia’s school summer vacation. This year, tournament organizers rejected a request to switch it to March, but will move it back a week in ‘07. In ‘88, the year that the tournament permanently moved to Melbourne Park, it switched surfaces from grass to Rebound Ace (a blue, rubbery hard court). And, oh yeah, Australia has produced 23 members of the International Hall of Fame, trailing only the U.S, and has won 28 Davis Cup titles.


getty images
Newcombe, Rafter and Hewitt: Three generations of Aussie greats.

TOP 10 AUSSIE MEN

1. Rod Laver: The lovable Rocket is only man to win two calendar year Slams, one as an amateur, one as a pro.

2. Ken Rosewall: Sublime backhand helped him win eight Slam singles titles and snare his first and last 20 years apart. That’s real “Muscles.”

3. John Newcombe: Davis Cup hero, legendary doubles player (with Tony Roche), “Newk” took seven Slam singles crowns , and was a storied Davis Cup captain.

4. Roy Emerson: Even though many of “Emmo’s” 13 Slam crowns came when many of the game’s elite were playing the pros, you don’t bag that many Slam crowns if you can’t play elite ball. Plus, he won five straight Aussie Opens.

5. Lew Hoad: Considered by some to be the greatest ever, this gorilla-chested strongman turned pro in ‘57 and might have won more than four Slam titles had he remained an amateur. In his last year as an amateur, ‘56, he won an astounding 32 titles.

6. Jack Crawford: Called by one commentator the “most popular Wimbledon winner in history,” the exemplary sportsman was No. 1 in ‘33 and bagged five Slams in singles.

7. Frank Sedgman: Jump-started the greatest streak in international team tennis when he single-handedly led the Aussies to the 1950 Davis Cup title - their first Cup since ‘39. But they would win the trophy 15 times between ‘50 and ‘67. Sedge also won five Slams in singles.

8. Ashley Cooper: The “Gary” Cooper of Down Under, this ladies favorite dominated in ‘58, winning three out of four Slams (the French excepted). Also won the ‘57 Aussie.

9. Lleyton Hewitt: Okay, Pat Cash’s run-up-into-the-stands-and-hug-my- dad Wimbledon win was more dramatic than Hewitt’s. And countrymen Gerald Patterson, Neal Fraser and Adrian Quist have more singles slams titles (three each), plus Fred Stolle, John Bromwich and Mervyn Rose have just as many. But Hewitt won the ‘01 US Open and ‘02 Wimbledon in a much deeper era. Moreover, he’s had the seventh longest reign at No. 1 with 80 weeks.

10. Patrick Rafter: Yes, three others have won more Slams, but they didn’t win back-to-back US Opens in ‘97-‘98 in Pete and Andre’s house like this rugged, oh-so-likeable Queenslander did.


matthew atanian
The graceful Goolagong won Wimbly as a mum.

TOP 5 AUSSIE WOMEN

1. Margaret Court: Grabbed a record 62 major crowns between 1960-’75 and the calendar year Slam in ‘70. The third best player ever behind Graf and Navratilova.

2. Evonne Goolagong: During the 70s, this native Aborigine won 13 majors, including seven in singles. Known for her sublime grace and curious walkabouts, in ‘80, she became the first mom to win Wimbledon in 66 years.

3. Lesley Turner Bowry: Twice the French singles champion, she won 13 Slam titles between 1961-67

4. Nancye Wynne Bolton: This tall, big hitter won 20 Aussie Open titles (six singles) between 1936-’52.

5. Daphne Akhurst: The first female elite player from Down Under won 14 Aussie Open crowns between 1925-‘31

10 MEMORABLE AUSSIE OPEN FINALS

1995: Agassi d. Sampras 4-6, 6-1, 7-6, 6-4: The only time that “AA” beat Pete in a Slam final, coming just days after Sampras cried on court after finding out his coach, Tim Gullikson, had brain cancer.

1988: Mats Wilander d. Pat Cash 6-3, 6-7, 3-6, 6-1, 8-6: As painful as his loss the year prior to Edberg was, this was far worse for Cashy, as it was played the year of Australia’s 100th anniversary. The Swede’s lob and retrieving won out over Cash’s constant net charges.

1987: Stefan Edberg d. Pat Cash 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3: Had the gritty Cash won either this final or the successive one against Wilander, he would have made the all-time Aussie top 10 list.

1965: Roy Emerson d. Fred Stolle 7-9, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-1: The king of the amateur era comes back from two sets down to extinguish the fiery upstart.

1960: Rod Laver d. Neal Fraser 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 8-6, 8-6: The Rocket skirts a match point in the fourth set against a fellow lefty Aussie, the first of his 11 Slams.

2003: Serena Williams d. Venus Williams 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4: Little sister completes her “Serena Slam” in their most hotly contested Slam final.

2002: Jennifer Capriati d. Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2: In perhaps her greatest win ever, Jen fights off four match points and a stunned Swiss No. 1 in brutal heat.

1993: Monica Seles d. Steffi Graf 4-6, 6-3, 6-2: In the last major she won before her stabbing, Seles proved she was better than the German even when Graf was admittedly playing well.

1981: Martina Navratilova d. Chris Evert 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5: Martina I begins her dominant period in ‘81, taking her first of three Aussie crowns in a another classic win over her arch rival.

1971: Margaret Court d. Evonne Goolagong 2-6, 7-6 (0), 7-5: The first time these two Aussie giants met in their home country final and the dominating Court ekes out another win just before the younger Evonne takes over the tour and becomes No. 1.