The Australian Open is an annual tennis competition which is held at Melbourne Park Tennis Complex. It is the first of four Grand Slam events which dominate the tennis calendar each year and it is typically played from mid-January onwards. The tournament is held over a two-week period and is watched by sports fans all over the world. It began in 1905 and regarded as one of the biggest sporting events to be held in the Southern Hemisphere.
The tournament is also synonymous with soaring temperatures as it’s held in Australian midsummer. Players can often be seen struggling in the sweltering condition although the fine weather does help attract legions of supporters to Melbourne each year. Over 700,000 tennis fans attended the event in 2018.
It is one of two Grand Slam events which are held on the hard courts and there are a number of warm-up events preceding the tournament which are held in Brisbane and Sydney. Prior to 1988, it was held on grass courts and this coincided with the tournament’s permanent move to Melbourne.
The women’s final is held on the second Saturday of the tournament with the men’s showpiece held 24 hours later.
Margaret Court has the most single titles at this event having won the event on eleven different occasions. She won the event every year between 1960 and 1966 and her last victory came in 1973. Martina Hingis became the youngest winner in 1997 when she lifted the trophy at 16 year and 4 months.
2019 Australian Open Prediction Report
Despite taking some time away from the game to give birth to her first child, Serena Williams continues to dominate the women’s game and she was given an implied probability of 16.67% going into the 2019 tournament.
The American, who has occupied the world number one spot on eight different occasions has won this tournament seven times with her latest success coming in 2017. She reached the final of the US Open in 2018 and despite her high-profile defeat to Naomi Osaka, she was expected to reach the final two once again. She opened 2019 with three straight victories in the Hopman Cup and she looked in good form going into the tournament.
2018 winner Caroline Wozniacki was the second favourite going into the tournament and the Dane was given an implied probability 12.50% ahead of the 2019 tournament. She was aiming to defend her crown once more. Last season saw her finally clinch her first Grand Slam title and it was always a big ask for her to follow up twelve months later. She had fallen to Karolina Pliskova in the WTA Championships at the end of last year and she began this season with a surprise defeat to Bianca Vanessa Andreescu in Auckland.
Simona Halep was a beaten finalist at last year’s event and although she followed it up with success in Paris last year, she hasn’t always had the best record in Grand Slams and she was drawn in the same half of the draw as Serena Williams. She was given just an 11.11% implied probability ahead of the tournament getting underway, identical to Angelique Kerber. The German reached the final of the Hopman Cup and always tends to progress well at this tournament. She won the tournament back in 2016 and was expected to reach the latter stages once more.
Garbine Muguruza was given just a 9.09% implied probability although she’s probably better on the grass and clay courts. The aforementioned Karolina Pliskova was also given the same implied probability and was expected to go well.
2018 Australian Open
Serena Williams chose not to participate in 2018 and her withdrawal opened up the draw.
The final was a battle between the two top seeds with Simona Halep taking on Caroline Wozniacki. It was the world number two who came out on top and managed to leapfrog her opponents in the rankings as a result. She also became the first Danish player to win a Grand Slam courtesy of a 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 victory over the Romanian.
Angelique Kerber and Elise Mertens also reached the semi-finals of the tournament.
