The Australian Open is the first of four prestigious Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and is usually held in January each year.
In 1904, six Australian state tennis associations and the governing body of the game in New Zealand came together to form the Lawn Tennis Association of Australasia.
The following year a tournament was created to showcase the sport - the Australasian men's championships. The tournament was staged at the Albert Reserve in Melbourne, on the lawns of the Warehouseman's Cricket Club.
Over the years, the tournament has undergone two name changes. The first came in 1927 when it became known as the Australian Championships. Then, in 1969, the name we currently know - the Australian Open - became the official title.
The championships have been staged predominantly in Australia. Seven different cities have played host to the tournament - Melbourne (54 times), Sydney (17 times), Adelaide (14 times), Brisbane (7 times), Perth (3 times), Christchurch (once) and Hastings (once). With the exception of 1916-1918 (during World War I) and 1941-1945 (during World War II) the tournament has been held annually. The 2009 Australian Open will mark the 98th staging of the event.
During the 1930s, Australia's Jack Crawford emerged as one of the all time great Australian Open winners with four titles in five years. Crawford's heir in the final years of amateur competition was Queenslander Roy Emerson, whose six Australian Open crowns have not been surpassed to date.
The first female tennis player to dominate the Australian Open was also an Australian. Nancy Wynne Bolton won the trophy six times from 1937 to 1951, making the final on eight occasions.
The beginning of the Open era in 1968, and the participation of professional tennis players in the Australian Open for the first time, marked the end of the Australasian dominance of the tournament.
Particularly in the men's tournament, top international players came to the fore and began to win titles on a regular basis. The list of male Australian Open winners from 1968 onwards reads like a who's who in the tennis world. Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg all left their names engraved on the Australian Open championship trophy marking it as a genuinely great Grand Slam prize.
The 1971 Open was the last time that the tournament would be played outside Melbourne. White City, Sydney, played host to the event that saw two Australian tennis legends Ken Rosewall and Margaret Court claim the respective singles' titles.
The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club became the adopted home of the Australian Open in 1982.
1987 saw the last staging of the Open on grass. In an epic five set encounter, Stefan Edberg defeated Pat Cash in the men's final in front of a capacity crowd at Kooyong. Hana Mandilkova was the women's champion.
The move to Flinders Park (now Melbourne Park) in 1988 saw the Australian Open staged on Rebound Ace for the first time. Since then, the title of Australian Open champion has belonged to a host of modern prodigies including Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and, more recently, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
The women's title took somewhat longer to acquire an international flavour. Australian champions such as Margaret Court and Margaret Smith ensured Australian dominance of the singles titles well into the 1970s. It was only in the 1980s that international players began winning the female singles titles on a regular basis, with Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles all winning several titles.
Later on, the emergence of 'Swiss Miss' Martina Hingis in the late 1990s further illustrated the above point, when the then World No. 1 made the final of the women's singles a record six consecutive times from 1997 - 2002, winning the first three.
Prior to the 2000 tournament, the centre court was christened Rod Laver Arena. The $65-million development of Vodafone Arena was one of the most significant advancements in the Open's history.
The highlight of both stadiums is the presence of a retractable roof - ensuring that play can continue in declining weather.
In 2008, there was more change as 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.
In last year's final Andy Murray's grand slam final misery continued as he was comprehensively beaten by Novak Djokovic.
Murray looked out of sorts from the off and was second best throughout a one-sided encounter as Djokovic followed up his 2008 success in Melbourne with a 6-4 6-2 6-3 triumph in two hours and 39 minutes.
Murray has now appeared in three grand slam finals and is yet to win a set - a record in the open era - with this latest setback likely to be the hardest to stomach.
On the women' side, Kim Clijsters broke Chinese hearts in 2010 after beating Li Na in a classic Australian Open final encounter.
Li overcame a nervy start to win the first set but lost her direction midway through the second as she became irritated by a section of the crowd and Clijsters took full advantage to hit back and win 3-6 6-3 6-3 to claim her first major outside of New York.
The Australian Open remains one of the greatest events on the Australian sporting calendar and is nicknamed the “Happy Slam” by many of tennis players.
