The Australian Open

The Australian Open is the first of the world's four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, held each January at Melbourne Park.

Traditionally, accomplishing a Grand Slam is to win all four majors in a calendar year; recently tennis fans have adopted the shorthand of referring to each of the four parts of the Slam (Australian, French, Wimbledon and US Opens) as a slam in itself. The Australian Rod Laver was the last man to complete a Grand Slam in men's singles in 1969. On the women's side, Steffi Graf was the last woman to win a Grand Slam in 1988, and she also won the Olympic Gold in Seoul in the same year, making it a Golden Slam.

The tournament was held for the first time in 1905. Like the other three Grand Slam events, it was contested by top-ranked amateur players and known as the Australian championships until the advent of open tennis in 1968. Originally based at the grass courts at Kooyong in the city of Melbourne's inner south-east, the tournament was in danger of fading into irrelevance before being revived in the 1988 with a shift to Melbourne Park (then called Flinders Park), a new (Rebound Ace) hardcourt venue next to the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the southern fringe of the central business district. Mats Wilander was the only player to win the tournament both on grass and on Rebound Ace.

Like all the Grand Slam tournaments, there are men's and women's singles competitions, men's, women's, and mixed doubles, as well as junior and master's competitions.

Two tournaments were held in 1977; the first in January, the second in December. The tournament moved back to January in 1987, so no championship was decided in 1986.
Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open. Rod Laver Arena, the centre court, in the background.
Enlarge
Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open. Rod Laver Arena, the centre court, in the background.

The two main courts, Rod Laver Arena, and Vodafone Arena are unusual in that they feature movable roofs which can be shut in case of rain or extreme heat. It is the only Grand Slam tournament that can feature indoor play. However, Wimbledon has plans to build a retractable roof for Centre Court in 2009.

Held in the middle of the Australian summer, the Australian Open is famous for its notoriously hot days. An extreme-heat policy is often put into play when temperatures (and humidity) reach dangerous levels.

The current major sponsor of the Australian Open is the Kia Motor Company


The French Open

The French Open, officially the Tournoi de Roland-Garros (English: Roland Garros Tournament), is a tennis event held over two weeks between mid May and early June in Paris, France, and is the second of the Grand Slam tournaments on the annual tennis calendar. It is the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world. The French Open is currently sponsored by the French bank, BNP Paribas.

The French Open began as a national tournament in 1891. In 1925, the French Championships opened itself to international competitors with the event held on a grass surface alternatively between the Racing Club de France and the Stade Français. For the 1928 Davis Cup challenge, a new tennis stadium was built at Porte d’Auteuil. Named for a hero of World War I, the new Stade Roland Garros, and Court Philippe Chatrier, was built with a red clay (terre battue) playing surface.

Clay courts slow the ball down and produce a high bounce when compared to grass courts or hard courts. As such, over the years, clay court specialists have evolved who often succeed here whilst higher ranked players may struggle. Fourteen-time major-champion Pete Sampras and current World No. 1 Roger Federer won every other Grand Slam tournament several times, but never the French Open. As of 2006, the last six, 8 of the last 9, 11 of the last 13, and 13 of the last 17 French Open men's singles championships were won by men who did not win any other Grand Slam tournament. On the female side of tennis, the French Open is the title that has prevented players such as Lindsay Davenport from achieving a career Grand Slam and in 1997, it was the only Grand Slam tournament that a 16-year old Martina Hingis failed to win.

In 1968 the French championship became the first Grand Slam tournament to go "open", allowing both amateurs and professionals to compete. As of 2006, the French Open joined the US Open and the Australian Open as the only major tennis events to offer equal prize money to both the men and women singles winners.

Wimbledon

The Championships, Wimbledon, commonly referred to as simply "Wimbledon", is the oldest and arguably most prestigious event in the sport of tennis. Held every June and July in London, United Kingdom the tournament is the third Grand Slam event played each year, preceded by the Australian Open and the French Open, and followed by the U.S. Open. The tournament (which is the only Grand Slam event currently played on grass - although there are other tournaments played on the surface such as Queens and Halle) lasts for two weeks, subject to extensions for rain.

Separate tournaments are simultaneously held, all at the same venue, for Gentlemen's Singles, Ladies' Singles, Gentlemen's Doubles, Ladies' Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Youth tournaments — Boys' Singles, Girls' Singles, Boys' Doubles and Girls' Doubles — are also held. Additionally, special invitational tournaments are held: the 35 and over Gentlemen's Doubles, 45 and over Gentlemen's Doubles, 35 and over Ladies' Doubles and wheelchair doubles.


The US Open

The United States Open tennis tournament, commonly referred to as the U.S. Open, is the fourth and final event of the Grand Slam tennis tournaments. It is held annually in August and September over a two week period (the weeks prior to and following Labor Day weekend). The main tournament consists of five championships: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles, with additional tournaments for senior, junior, and wheelchair players. Since 1978, the tournament has been held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York City.

The U.S. Open is different from the other 3 Grand Slam tournaments in that there are final set tiebreaks. In the other three majors, the fifth set for the men and the third set for the women continues until someone wins by two games.

In 2006, the U.S. Open became the first Grand Slam tournament to implement instant replay review of calls, using Hawk-Eye. Available only on the stadium courts (Ashe and Armstrong), each player is allowed two challenges per set plus one additional challenge during a tiebreak, but is not penalized with the loss of a challenge if the challenge turns out to be correct. Once the challenge is made, the official review (a 3D computer simulation based on multiple high-speed video cameras) is shown to the players, umpires, and audience on the stadium video boards and to the television audience at the same time. The system is said to be 100% accurate to within 5 millimeters. During the 2006 US Open only 30.5% of Men's challenges were upheld and 35.85% [1] of Women's challenges were upheld giving a measure of vindication to the oft criticized line umpires.

Australian Open - Australian Open revise heat policy

The Australian Open have revised their extreme heat policy after a number of complaints including one from Maria Sharapova, who labelled the conditions she was forced to play in this year as "inhuman".

The most significant policy change is that players in the upcoming Open will no longer have to complete matches that are already underway once the policy is invoked but instead will only have to complete the current set.

Another major change to the policy sees the decision to suspend play entirely at the discretion of the tournament referee. Previously Open organisers used a specific cut-off point based on calculations from a set of weather readings.

"Previously if we invoked the heat policy the matches continued until the conclusion of a match," tournament director Craig Tiley said. "Some players were out here in very extreme conditions for another three to four hours.

"Now we're saying at the end of a set the matches will come in so we're not going to create that situation where players have to battle it out with a lack of performance because of the heat for a long time.

"We can take all those factors [with an on-site weather station and meteorologist] and put them together. The most important is the actual forecast that's something that's going to really be able to help us.

"If there's a sea breeze coming in we know we'll probably be all right by the afternoon."