The 1978 Australian Open was a

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

tournament played on outdoor

grass court A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament. Although grass c ...

s at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia and was held from 25 December 1978 to 3 January 1979. It was the 67th edition of the Australian Open and the fourth

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

tournament of the year. The singles titles were won by Argentinian

Guillermo Vilas Guillermo Vilas (; born 17 August 1952) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. Vilas was the No. 1 of the Grand Prix seasons in 1974, 1975 and 1977, and won four Grand Slam tournaments, one year-end Masters, nine Grand Prix Super Se ...

and Australian Chris O'Neil.

Seniors

Men's singles

defeated John Marks, 6–4, 6–4, 3–6, 6–3 :• It was Vilas' 3rd career Grand Slam singles title and his 1st title at the Australian Open.

Women's singles

Chris O'Neil defeated Betsy Nagelsen, 6–3, 7–6^(7–3) :• It was O'Neil's 1st and only career Grand Slam singles title.

Men's doubles

Wojciech Fibak Wojciech Fibak (; popularly Wojtek Fibak ; born 30 August 1952) is a former professional tennis player and Polish entrepreneur and art collector. Fibak is best known for his doubles success with Dutch pro Tom Okker and Australian Kim Warwick, a ...

Kim Warwick Kim Warwick (born 8 April 1952) is an Australian former professional male tennis player who competed on the ATP Tour from 1970–1987, reaching the singles final of the Australian Open in 1980. He defeated over 35 players ranked in the top ten ...

defeated

Paul Kronk Paul Kronk (born 22 September 1954) is a former tennis player from Australia. Kronk won seven doubles titles during his professional career. The right-hander reached his highest singles ATP ranking on 25 April 1976, when he was No. 78 in the w ...

Cliff Letcher Cliff Letcher (born 9 February 1952) was a former professional tennis player from Australia. He played Davis Cup for Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Cent ...

, 7–6, 7–5 :• It was Fibak's 1st and only career Grand Slam doubles title. :• It was Warwick's 1st career Grand Slam doubles title.

Women's doubles

Betsy Nagelsen / Renáta Tomanová defeated

Naoko Sato is a retired Japanese professional tennis player. Career Naoko Sato best results came in the doubles. She reached final of 1978 Australian Open with Pam Whytcross which they lost to Betsy Nagelsen and Renáta Tomanová Renáta Tomanová (b ...

/ Pam Whytcross, 7–5, 6–2 :• It was Nagelsen's 1st career Grand Slam doubles title. :• It was Tomanová's 1st and only career Grand Slam doubles title.

Mixed doubles

This event was not held from

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

until

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Open,1978 December 1978 sports events in Australia January 1979 sports events in Australia 1978,Australian Open