All about Australian Open 2007

All about Australian Open 2007

Australian Open 2007 will be started from 15^th to 28^th of January 2007 at Melbourne, Australia. This tournament will offer £ 680.000 which is the ever highest amount offered as prize money for single’s winners. Through this tournament Grand Slam competition for the next season will be started. Australian Open is one of the most popular and prestigious tournament among the tennis tournament.

History of Australian Open:

Australian Tennis Championship (Australian Open was known by this name earlier) was first organized in Warehouseman's Cricket Ground in St Kilda Road, Melbourne in 1905 which was arranged by Lawn Tennis Association of Australia and likely to other three Grand Slam tournaments, this tournament was only for the top ranked amateur players. It was until 1968, the tournament was known as Australian Championship which was changed into Australian Open while world tennis entered into open era in 1969.

The tournament was held in five different cities including Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and New Zealand (twice). This kind of mobilizing continued till 1971. However, in 19272 it was decided that the tournament would be held in a particular city then on and Melbourne showed much enthusiasm. Eventually Melbourne was selected as the hosted city that year and it continues still now. Earlier, the tournament was held at Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourn. However, thinking the overgrowing popularity every year Government built a new venue for this tournament which was initially named Flinders Park (now known as Melbourne Park) which has more seating capacity than that of Kooyong lawn Tennis Club. The tournament has been being hosted in this new venue from 1988. In 2000, the central court of this park has been named after great Australian Rod Lever, to show honor to this legendary figure in the history of tennis.

The first Women’s Singles event was held in this tournament in 1922, the first competition after the first world war and that is why a plural ‘s’ was added to the name of this tournament, Australian Championships which was formerly known as Australian Tennis Championship.

Australian Open is traditionally held in January. However, in 1977 two tournaments were held in the same year- one in January and another one in December. The tournament continued holding in December till 1985 and the tournament went back to its previous date from 1987. The tournament is still held in January.

Now, Australian Open involves Men’s and Women’s Singles, and Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Doubles.

Trophy:

Trophy presented to the winner of the Men’s singles: Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup

Trophy presented to the winner of the Women’s singles: Norman Brookes Challenge Cup

Australian Open 2007:

Australian Open 2007 is going to be introduced with the record prize money of AUD $20 million. For the first time, Hawk-Eye will be used to take the right decision regarding line calls.

Sponsors:

There are some sponsors and official partners of Australian Open 2007. I am going to write shortly on each of the4 sponsors and partners.

Major Sponsors

KIA MOTORS:

Hyundai-Kia Automotive group has been founded in 1999. Kia Motors has been organizing its business over the world very successfully from the initial stage of its formation. Kia Motors is investing much money on its business promotional activities especially in the sporting world. It is the major financial source of Australian Open recently. And it will remain the major sponsor in the next year Australian Open too. It ahs also sponsorship deal with Davis Cup. Kia is going to be one of the six FIFA official sponsors in which they will get the right of 2010 and 2114 world cup football tournaments.

Associate Sponsors

GARNIER:

Garnier is a leading cosmetic product manufacturer and it has a world wide business. It has haircare, hair color, skincare and suncare products. It has been an associate sponsor of Australian Open. During the tournament the company provides beauty care to the players and also to the patron of Australian Open. They also organize a breakfast party where many things are offered to the participant including Garnier gift box, official program of Australian Open.

GE MONEY:

GE Money is a popular consumer product company in Australia and it has its business over 100 countries. It provides balance transfer, personal loans and other finance related services to its customers. GE Money is also an associate sponsor of the Australian Open.

Official Partners

AMERICAN EXPRESS:

This U.S.A based travel, financial and network Service Company which is going to be one of the sponsors of Australian Open 2007 and it is the 8^th time they are going to be official partner of Australian Open.

IBM:

IBM supports Australian Open technologically since 1993. It also helps this tournament authority to expand their business maximizing their profit over the world.

OPTUS:

Optus has a deal with Tennis Australia in which it helps Tennis Australia’s palyer development program and it gives all kind of solutions of telecommunications of Tennis Australia. It has also been a part of Australian Open since 2005 giving support in telecommunication to Australian Open.

AVIVA:

Aviva provides investment and financial analyzing company as well as a life insurance company. It is linked with Australian Open as the company sponsors the Ball kids of the tournaments since 2005 and it also gives two prizes of beat ball boy and best ball girls.

STATE GOVERNMENT of VICTORIA:

State govt. of Victoria gives $1.5 million a year for three years in the development of tourism. They invest in tourism so that they get more revenue from tourism through Australian Open.

Official Sponsors

AUSTRALIA POST:

Australian Post is a postal service in Australia. Besides, it also offers retail, agency service and business solutions. This company is a official sponsors of Australian Open.

POWERADE:

Powerade is the leading sports drink of Australia. It is one of the official sponsors of Australian Open.

EVIAN:

Evian is a natural drinking water which ahs popularity over the 100 countries for its purity. The company has been an official sponsor of Australian Open as a part of its promotional activities.

HEINEKEN:

Heineken is a widely known beer brand and the second largest beer brand in the world which has business over the 170 countries. The company was founded more than 130 years ago. It is the official drink and official sponsors of Australian Open.

QANTAS:

Qantas is an airline company. It has long distance airline services in the world. It is also an official sponsor of Australian Open. The company offers some package tours to Australia during the Australian Open.

RADO:

Rado is a Swiss watchmaker company which is a popular name in the international watch market. It plays an important in the Australian Open tournament since 2005 being the official timekeeper of the tournament.

WILSON:

Wilson is a global sporting goods manufacturer. This Chicago based company is a renowned company in the global market of sporting goods suppliers. It has business over the world. The company is also an official sponsor of Australian Open.

Official Broadcasters

7Sports:

7Sports is one of the popular media companies in Australia. It has television channels and magazines. It broadcasted many major sporting tournaments including Olympic Games, Rugby tournament s in Australia and Australia’s golf tournament. Besides, the company also covers Australian Open for three decades.

Fox Sports:

Fox Sports is a popular television channel which is only for sports. Tournaments it broadcasts are NRL, Super 12 Rugby, English Premier League, USPGA, NBL, motor sports including Moto GP, superbike, World Rally championships, Nascar, and Australian cricket tours. The channel also covers some domestic sporting events. Moreover, it is also an official broadcaster of Australian Open.

Ticket:

Considering the popularity of Australian Open, authority have made a easy process of buying a ticket through online and it is recommended you to buy your ticket as early as possible to avoid any unexpected refusal of a ticket.

You can have detailed information of tickets in the ticket page of official website of Australian Open or tickets of different categories

You can buy your desired travel packages from various packages offered on the occasion of Australian Open in the following link:

Tennis Australia Travel- Australian Open Travel Packages 2007

You may prefer to buy tickets by match to match particularly apart from packages. Then you can have a visit to the Tennis Tours website.

Inductee of Australian Tennis Hall of Fame:

Mark Edmondson will be the inductee of Australian Tennis Hall of Fame in 2007. He is the last Australian winner of Australian Open. He won his only Grand Slam titles in Australian Open in 1976 while he was in 212 in the ATP ranking. Thus he became the lowest-ranked Grand Slam winner in the world. He won six career singles titles and 34 doubles titles in which five are Grand Slam.