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The Australian Open is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments in the world. It is the first open on the calendar held in January every year. It is held at Melbourne Park and the two main courts are Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Arena. It is played in the middle of the Australian summer and can get extremely hot, in some cases players have retired from their games due to the excessive heat. The winners of the final, both men and women, recieve $2,000,000 million Australian. The 2010 Australian Open is being run between the 18th - 31st of January. The first Australian Open, played in 1905 at the Albert Park Tennis Centre was known as the Australasian Championships. Since the first Australian Open was played, the tournament has been held in 5 Australian cities and two New Zealand Cities. The city holding the most Australian Open's is Melbourne with 50. The tournament was held only once in each New Zealand city, those being in Christchurch and Hastings in 1906 and 1912. In 1927 it was called the Australian championships, until it was officially named the Australian Open in 1969. The idea of staging the tournament in the same city every year came about in 1972 when Kooyong Tennis Club was chosen to host the event. A big part of the event being held in Melbourne was that Melbourne could draw the crowds, support and money etc.

The event gained popularity and the tournament out grew the stadium. The capacity of Kooyong couldn't hold enough people and with overwhelming numbers trying to get in and attend the Open, a new complex was built in 1988, Melbourne Park. With new popularity in the tournament, officials predicted an increase in crowds, but they didn't expect the change from Kooyong to Melbourne Park to double in attendances. The succes was so huge that no one could have seen it coming. But Kooyong didn't lose its touch when the Open moved to Melbourne Park. Since 1988 an exhibition tournament, a lead up for the male players before the Open has been held at Kooyong. The AAMI Classic is played just before the Australian Open begins. 8 players are invited to attend the tournament, which is run over 4 days, to play in a round-robin type format. Past players have included, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Andy Roddick and Roger Federer. This tournament revitalises Kooyong to its former glory.

During the early years of the tournament, only a few international players arrived for the tournament, because Australia was so far away. Travel back then took a very long time, it would sometimes tack months to get to Australia by boat. Even Australians in their own country didn't have accessibility to good transport, so when the Open was held in Perth, Victorian and New South Wales tennis players didn't attend. They would have had to travel over the Nullarbor Plain, over 3,000 km. The amount of travelling and remoteness of the Australian Open is best stressed when only 10 tennis players in the Australasian Championships, in 1906 in Christchurch, attended the tournament. No foreign players took part in the Championship and only 2 Australians were involved.

The first Australian Open was played in 1969. Many top international players still didn't attend the tournament until the early 80's because the tournament was still remote for players unlike the other Opens, even though travel was quicker by plane, the prize money wasn't efficient enough to entice players and the tournament was played during December and January. Hot weather and important dates like Christmas restricted players to arrive and became and inconvenience with their social calenders. The date of the Australian open has changed over the years from December to January, back to December and then to January again. The decision to move the tournament to mid-January was made in 1987 and hasn't changed since.

Recently, the same problems have arisen when the Australian Open was first played in 1969 and the years following that, that top players are complaining about the heat and the date being to close to Christmas. They want it moved to February, which would allow them to have a good start and get them prepared for the year ahead. During the last thirty or so years, no Australian player has won the open, the last being Chris O'Neil, winning the female singles, in 1978. With good competition from players like Nadal, Federer and Djokovic and in the women's draw players like the Williams Sisters and up and coming European stars it looks like it will stay that way.

But the domination of these players also brings in crowds and lots of money for the economy. Finals are always sold out before the Open even begins, people knowing that a Nadal or a William sister will be playing in the final and that the style of tennis they play and skill that they have will entertain them. The tournament is also under threat. Rival states like New South Wales and Brisbane and international countries in Asia are all contesting for the Open when Melbourne's contract expires. These bids to host the tournament have made the government make a proposal of revamping and upgrading Melbourne Park. This will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to keep the Open here, but many say the Australian Open is Melbourne and for the people that is a good enough reason. Game, set and match. ​ **__THE PRIZE__**

The winners of the Australian Open singles inherit $2,000,000 each. Doubles pocket $500,000 each. Every contestant receives an amount fo money, ofcourse players that get eliminated in the 1st round receive less then players in the semi-finals. The winners also recieve a trophy. The men's sinlges winner obtains the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, which is named in Sir Norman Everard Brookes' honour and the women's singles winner receives the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup. Players names are engraved on the trophies. Money recieved by players throughout the rounds is as follows:

First Round - $19,400 Second Round - $31,000 Third Round - $51,000 Fourth Round - $88,000 Quarter Final - $182,250 Semi Final - $365,000 Runners-up - $1,000,000
 * Winner - $2,000,000**