The Australian Open is the first of four annual Grand Slam tennis tournaments, held annually in Melbourne Australia during the third and fourth week of January.

Initially played on Kooyong's grass courts, the tournament was in danger of falling into irrelevance, but was revitalized in the 1980s with the move to Melbourne Park and the surface of the new courts becoming hard.

The center court, the Rod Laver Arena, can seat 20,000 spectators and, like the refurbished number one court named Hisense Arena, has a retractable roof and can therefore be closed in the event of rain or extreme heat. It was the first Grand Slam tournament to be played indoors.

Over the years the playing surface has changed several times, we started from grass passing from Rebound Ace to Plexicushion, since 2020 GreenSet has been used, a synthetic surface in hard acrylic.

This competition was not always the first of the season: in 1977 it was moved to the bottom of the group of Grand Slam tournaments and for this reason two editions were held in that year, one in January and another in December. The custom of playing the Australian Open as the last tournament lasted until 1985: in that year that edition of the tournament, although held in December, became the first round of the 1986 season and, from 1987, resumed its positioning in January.