Australian Open 2018

With the 2018 Australian Open wrapping up this weekend, let’s have a look at some of the history of the Open and some the highlights of the 2018 Open.

History:

The Australian Open is held annually in Melbourne over the last two weeks of January, it is the first grand slam event of the year.

The first Open was in 1905, and was originally known as the Australasian Championships, changing to Australian Championships in 1927, and the current title in 1969.

It was only designated a major championship in 1924, after the ILTF met in 1923 and designated it a championship. The Open was held at a few venues from 1905 until 1972, these included cities in Australia and New Zealand. Melbourne was chosen to host the tennis event each year as it had the largest amount of patronage in Australia. The event has been held at the Melbourne Park complex since 1988, and attracts crowds to that rival the US Opens numbers.

In the beginning years of the tournament, it attracted few international players as Australia was quite a long way away from other countries and taking a ship from Europe could take over 45 days!

2018 Australian Open

The open this year has seen some drama, as the temperatures sore, causing tennis players and spectators to suffer in the intense heat.

This year the qualifiers were held from the 10th of January to the 14th of January, with the Championships being held from the 15th of January to the 28th of January.

The Woman’s Singles Final will be held on the Saturday, 27th as well as the Men’s Doubles Final. On the Sunday, the 28th the Mixed doubles Final, and Men’s Singles Final will be held.

This past Thursday, an epic and future classic match was played between Romanian Simona Halep and German Angelique Kerber. This match between the world number one Halep and the 2016 champion Kerber, saw Halep win this grand slam match 6-3 4-6 9-7.

The match had a few ups and downs and was not a sure thing for either Halep or Kerber at times, bit Halep showed her strength and determination and stuck the final set with a comeback point or two and won the match.

This result will mean Halep will face Caroline Woziniacki, who is ranked second in the world and who have both struggled to win titles when it came down to the wire. This match will also hopefully be another epic, and a final to be remembered for years to come.

The men’s singles final to be held on Sunday the 28th, has only so far confirmed Croatian Marin Cilic world number 6. Cilic beat the unseaded Briton Kyle Edmond on Thursday, ensuring his spot in the final and becoming the first ever Croatian in a final at the Australian Open.

The not so thrilling match between Cilic and Edmond ended Edmonds dream run at the Australian open, as he was clearly outmatched by the Croatian. But if you need a break from the tennis action why not try a different sport altogether and check the horse racing tips NZ sites have to offer for your best betting options.

In the end, Cilic faced superstar Roger Federer, but lost and is now ranked World number 3.