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Event
Information:
The
Australian Open is the first of the
four annual Grand Slam tennis
tournaments – the other three are
the French Open, US Open and
Wimbledon. The tournament is held in
the middle of the Australian summer,
in the last fortnight of the month
of January; thus an extreme-heat
policy is put into play when
temperatures reach dangerous levels.
The tournament was held for the
first time in 1905 and was last
contested on grass in 1987. Since
1988, the tournament has been held
on hard courts at Melbourne Park.
Mats Wilander is the only player to
win the tournament on both grass and
hard courts.
The
two main courts used in the
tournament are Rod Laver Arena and
Hisense Arena and feature
retractable roofs, which are shut
during rain or extreme heat. The
Australian Open and Wimbledon are
the only Grand Slam tournaments with
indoor play. In 2008, the Rebound
Ace surface, which had been in place
for the past 20 years at Melbourne
Park, was replaced by a cushioned,
medium-paced, acrylic surface
known as Plexicushion Prestige.
Roger Federer and Serena Williams
are the only players to win the
Australian Open on both Rebound Ace
and Plexicushion Prestige. The main
benefits of the new surface are
better consistency and less
retention of heat because of a
thinner top layer. This change was
accompanied by changes in the
surfaces of all lead-up tournaments
to the Australian Open. The change
was controversial because of the new
surface's similarity to DecoTurf,
the surface used by the US Open.
Like
all other Grand Slam tournaments,
there are men's and women's singles
competitions; men's, women's, and
mixed doubles; and junior's,
wheelchair, exhibition, and legends'
competitions. The singles winners in
2010 were Roger Federer and Serena
Williams. In men's doubles, the
winners were Bob and Mike Bryan, and
in women's doubles, the winners were
Serena and Venus Williams – the
second time in history and the
second consecutive year that both
Australian Open doubles titles were
won by siblings. In mixed doubles,
the winners were Cara Black and
Leander Paes.
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