Australian Open

Ruby Weller, Sports Editor
January 23, 2019

The 2019 Australia Tennis Open began on January 14th, 2019, taking place in Melbourne, Australia. The world’s top 102 women athletes and top 101 men athletes will be participating.

This grand slam will feature many different matches such as men’s, women’s, mixed doubles, singles, junior championships, wheelchair, and legends and exhibition events. A lot of very skilled and talented athletes will be competing in the open, including Serena Williams and Andy Murray.

As of January 18th (9 days before the end of the tournament), more than 33 matches have been played of men´s and women´s singles and doubles. Matches will be played on indoor and outdoor courts featuring athletes from more than 10 different countries.

The prize pool for this tournament is currently sitting at 62.5 million dollars! That is one of the richest pools for a tennis tournament ever. This event is also the largest sporting event in the southern hemisphere (which includes most of South America, about one-third of Africa, all of Antarctica, some parts of Indonesia, and all of Australia).

This tournament is trying to get rid of advantage sets and introduce “super tie-breakers”. A super tie-breaker will “break the deadlock in men’s and women’s matches that has been widely condemned by tennis fans.” The tie-breaker will come in if the score reaches 6-6 in the 5th set of men’s matches and the third for women.

This year will mark the 107th anniversary of the open. Hopefully this year Serena can earn her revenge from the 2018 open. She has won the open seven times, and if she wins she will.

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