The

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

is an annual

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournament created in

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...

and (since 1988) played on outdoor

hardcourt A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resins to seal the s ...

s at

Melbourne Park Melbourne Park is a sports venue in the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Since 1988, Australia's bicentenary, Melbourne Park has been home of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament play ...

in Melbourne, Australia. The Australian Open is played over a two-week period beginning in mid-January and has been chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments each year since 1987. The event was not held from 1916 to 1918 because of World War I, from 1941 to 1945 because of World War II and in 1986. The timing of the Australian Open has changed several times. In 1977, the date of the final moved from January to December, which resulted in having two Australian Opens in 1977; there was a January edition and a December edition that year. The originally planned December 1986 edition was moved forward to January 1987, resulting in no Australian Open in 1986. The

was an

Open Era The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Edgbaston, Warwickshire, England, now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today a ...

event for the first time in 1969. One year previously in 1968 the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

and the

US Open U.S. Open or US Open are open championship sporting tournaments that are hosted in the United States and in which anyone, especially amateur and professional, or American and non-American, may compete. The term may also be applied to non-sporting ev ...

were

events for the first time.

History

Christchurch and

Hastings, New Zealand Hastings (; , ) is an inland city of New Zealand and is one of the two major urban areas of New Zealand, urban areas in Hawke's Bay Region, Hawke's Bay, on the east coast of the North Island. The population of Hastings (including Flaxmere) is ...

, and Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, have hosted the men's singles event. The event switched cities every year before it settled in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

in Melbourne. The event was held at the

Kooyong Stadium Kooyong Stadium, at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, is an Australian tennis venue, located in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak, adjacent to the namesake suburb of Kooyong. The stadium was built in 1927, and has undergone several renovations. I ...

before moving to Melbourne Park in 1988. The Australian Open court surface changed once, from

grass court A grass court is one of the 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. While grass courts are more tra ...

s to hardcourts in 1988.

Mats Wilander Mats Arne Olof Wilander (; born 22 August 1964) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

was the only player to win the event on both surfaces; twice on grass and once on hardcourt. The men's singles rules have undergone several changes since the first edition. This event has always been contested in a

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

format, and all matches have been best-of-five sets except in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

, and

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

, when the first round was best-of-three sets, and in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

, when the third and fourth round were best-of-three sets. Since 1905, all sets have been decided in the advantage format. The lingering death best-of-twelve points

tie-break In games and sport, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is any method used to determine a winner or to rank participants when there is a tie - meaning two or more parties have achieved a same score or result. A tiebreaker provides the additional criterion ...

was introduced in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

and has been used for the first four sets since then, except from

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

, when the tie-break was also played in fifth sets. The champion receives a miniature replica of the

silver-gilt Silver-gilt or gilded/gilt silver, sometimes known in American English by the French language, French term vermeil, is silver (either pure or sterling silver, sterling) which has been gilding, gilded. Most large objects made in goldsmithing tha ...

Norman Brookes Sir Norman Everard Brookes (14 November 187728 September 1968) was an Australian tennis player. During his career he won three Grand Slam singles titles; Wimbledon in 1907 and 1914 (the first non-British born individual to do so) and the Au ...

Challenge Cup, named after the

1911 Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia. * January 3 ** 1911 Kebin earthquake: An earthquake of 7.7 m ...

champion and former Lawn Tennis Association of Australia (LTAA) president, and modeled after the Warwick Vase. In the Australasian Championships, James Anderson holds the records for most titles with three (1922, 1924–1925), and the most consecutive titles with two (1924–1925). In the Australian Championships,

Roy Emerson Roy Stanley Emerson (born 3 November 1936) is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, for a total of 28 Grand Slam titles. All of his singles Grand Slam victories and 14 of his ...

holds the records for most titles with six (1961, 1963–1967) and most consecutive titles with five (1963–1967). The inclusion of professional

players in

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

marked the competition's entry into the

, in which

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković, separator=" / ", ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at N ...

(2008, 2011–2013, 2015–2016, 2019–2021, 2023) holds the record for most titles with ten. The Open Era record for most consecutive titles is three by Djokovic (2011–2013 and 2019–2021). This event was won without losing a set during the Open Era by Rosewall in 1971 and Federer in 2007.

Champions

Australian Championships

Australian Open

Statistics

Multiple champions

Champions by country

Notes

References

General

* *

Specific

External links

Australian Open official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Open Men's Singles Champions

Men A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the fa ...