There is only one Australian Open tennis tournament: it’s in Melbourne and starts on Monday, 20 January, with qualifying already underway.
It has not always been staged in Melbourne. The tournament rotated around the states and even New Zealand when it was known as the Australasian Championships.
The Open was last held in Sydney at White City in January 1971.
Since then it has been held in Melbourne, its success and popularity ebbing and flowing until it nearly withered on the vine in the early 1980s after being rescheduled in 1977 to be the last grand slam of the year instead of the first.
After becoming the victim of Melbourne’s indifferent weather in November and December during that time, with several tournaments severely disrupted by rain, it warranted a move back to the January date in 1987.
Along with the huge undertaking of the Flinders/Melbourne Park stadium development, opened in 1988, the new date and venue set in motion the avalanche of momentum that has created the hugely successful and internationally envious event that it is today. The event is consistently voted the players’ favourite.
This international spotlight must have never sat well with the powers in Sydney, especially after the ‘best Olympics ever’ started to become a fading memory, as did the shine of the venues that housed them.
Although Sydney jumped at the chance to stage its Sydney International tournament in the week prior to the Australian Open at an Olympic venue, the tournament was fading in crowd numbers, prestige and the ability to attract any of the big four to put bums on seats.
The likes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, along with many other players, preferred to use the week prior to the Australian Open to just freshen up and practice if they had already played their Australian summer ‘warm-up’ either in Brisbane, Perth or even the Middle East.
(Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Sydney obviously desired its time back in the spotlight with a tennis event to rival the final of the Australian Open in prestige and world attention. Enter the ATP Cup.
Last Sunday’s ATP Cup final from a fan perspective was all of that – and maybe even more if you were a Serbian supporter. Even the Australian and Great Britain quarter-final will take some beating for edge-of-your-seat experiences this summer.
But at what cost has this quasi-Australian Open rival tournament in Sydney come?
Well, the first in line will be the WTA players telling you of the second-fiddle scheduling they received at the Brisbane tournament. Unless the format changes there those players will be lost to Auckland in 2021.
The second group of losers was the mid-ranked ATP players missing the opportunity to gain ranking points and match practice ahead of the Australian Open that they previously did in Brisbane and Sydney. It is not fair on an upcoming Australian player to be bumped out of the Canberra/Bendigo Challenger by pros ranked as high as 53. They had nowhere else to play.
The biggest losers from all this are probably the West Australian fans. They had their protest of losing their beloved and hugely successful Hopman Cup, hushed by the teaser of having the world No. 1 Rafael Nadal as a replacement.
While on paper that may have seemed like an acceptable trade, without solid competition for him to make it a close match it is like expecting fans to pay $150 to watch the West Coast Eagles play a local Auskick team. While Perth may have had some quality players to attract fans, quality matches to create atmosphere were scarce.
Much has already been written regarding the players lamenting the ATP Cup and that two world cups should not be staged so close together on the calendar.
The Davis Cup has existed amongst great tradition and prestige since 1900, so why was it tampered with?
The Australian summer tennis calendar was not broken in 2019. So who and why did someone try to fix it? Because it’s certainly broken now.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Oh, boo hoo, some women got bumped off the centre court in Brisbane for the first couple of rounds of that tournament. The ATP Cup was a major success. The Sydney international simply never got enough top men's players to be viable. It almost doesn't matter that they would get 25 of the top 32 women's players, when the men's draw would have the world 47 as the top seed and the world 65 as the second seed, and things like that. Add to that ticket prices were not far off Australian Open ticket prices. They needed something that could draw the top men's players in, and the ATP Cup did that in droves. And not just Sydney, but 3 cities benefited from it. Plus, this format means that for the preliminary rounds people are actually able to buy tickets to see specific players they want to see, instead of just buying a ticket for some round and not knowing who they would see. It was a raging success. With the only real downside being 3 days in which women didn't get to play on centre court in the Brisbane International. You know what, that's probably easily solved. They don't need outside courts for the ATP Cup. Is there something like a Brisbane Entertainment Centre or something with enough floor space to set up a tennis court? Maybe they could do something like that for the Brisbane matches next year. Problem solved. Not sure why anyone would look at the raging success the ATP Cup was and then wish for things the way they were last year!
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
It's because the round-robin style tournament guaranteed matches instead of the chance of doing a Barty and having a shocker in the first round and then missing out on warm-up matches. Coming in from the off season, players want to make sure they get some matches under their belt. So something like the ATP Cup is ideal. Guaranteed at least three singles matches, can lose your match but be carried by the other singles player through the tournament to get more matches etc.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Those matches mattered to the players. One big reason why so many play in tournaments like this and others that don't count for rankings points leading into the Australian open is the need to get some matches under their belts and not risk missing out on match practice if you have a shocker in your first match. It was a tournament that featured 16 of the top 20 men's players, had amazing atmosphere in a lot of the matches, and was really a raging success across multiple cities. Most of the real drawcards, like the Aussie team, Nadal, Djokovic etc were playing in cities other than Sydney in the preliminaries. (I believe Federer might have been scheduled to play in Sydney until he pulled out).
max power
Guest
it was broken, thats why it was changed
max power
Guest
what a surprise that the author is from Perth
max power
Guest
the article makes no mention of the ridiculous Kooyong classic which diverted the best mens players away from the sydney international, a time honoured tournament into a meaningless exhibition. the womens tournament in sydney has always been top class.
max power
Guest
incorrect, the 14 mil for the horse race is paid by owners and slot holders. they are not pumping billions. how about your ridiculous statement no significant cultural events? heard of vivid? the sydney festival? in recent years Kooyong hosted a mickey mouse tennis exhibition event to draw players away from the NSW tennis open/sydney international
Mark
Guest
The Australian summer tennis calendar was not broken in 2019. So who and why did someone try to fix it? Because it’s certainly broken now. 100% agree. What might have needed a few light touches; now needs a miracle.
AR
Guest
Ok. Which event would you regard as Sydney’s biggest annual international sporting event?
JVGO
Guest
Mate we pretty much are the Australian Cricket team, the Wallabies and more than half of the Socceroos. Who exactly are Port Adelaide?
Gyfox
Roar Rookie
For some reason, sport is not a significant thing in Sydney. Just look at NFL attendances! The culture is not the same as other Australian cities. EG: Port Adelaide FC celebrates its 150th birthday this year. Not sure if any Sydney sports club goes back that far.
tsuru
Roar Rookie
I’m sure the matches really mattered to the players. And I’m not sure we can judge attendance in the first days of the first year of a new event. How well was it advertised? I’m in New York so I couldn’t judge.
tsuru
Roar Rookie
Jocelyn, I have a couple of points to raise: 1 - “without solid competition for him to make it a close match it is like expecting fans to pay $150 to watch the West Coast Eagles play a local Auskick team.” I’m not sure Basilashvili and Nishioka would be thrilled to being compared to an Auskick team. They both pushed Nadal fairly close on the scoreboard, although I didn’t see the matches. But Rafa never gives less than 100% so I trust that 7-6, 6-4 and 7-5, 6-3 was tightish. 2 - “It is not fair on an upcoming Australian player to be bumped out of the Canberra/Bendigo Challenger by pros ranked as high as 53. They had nowhere else to play.”. The implication here seems to be that a Challenger should be a benefit event for locals. Challengers are used by players from everywhere who don’t qualify for whatever the current event is. And it seems to me that more 2nd tier players got warmed up this year than 2019: 24 teams in the ATP cup makes at least 48 singles players (but some teams, including Oz, had 3) and these guys mostly got 3 matches guaranteed. In 2019 Brisbane in this week had a draw of 32, of whom about 16 lost in the first round so only got one match. I genuinely don’t know what players like Dzumhur did last year, but I guess wherever they played they pushed some local out.
The Link
Guest
It all has to start somewhere, as the article points out, Melbourne had to build the Open as an event. They equally have done the same for the Boxing Day test and F1's which weren't around before the 90's. Sydney NYE, Sydney Festival in January and Autumn Racing in March/April could be added to Sydney's traditional yearly events list. Good recent examples from investment through NSW Events are Vivid Sydney and the NRL GF.
KenW
Guest
And the same reason someone floats the image of the F1s driving across the Harbour Bridge in the annual “steal the Grand Prix” campaign. For such a large city, Sydney has never had much in the way of significant yearly sporting & cultural events, other than its own Syd-Hobart yacht race. What a weird statement from so many angles... that you think this is true? That you would pick the relatively minor Syd-Hob as the one exception? That you would unironically refer to Sydney 'stealing' the F1 (Adelaide would like a word...).
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
yeah, this article comes across as just trying to stir the pot with this mythical Sydney/Melbourne rivalry thing. Well, the media would like there to be something there, but no person I've ever spoken to really cares...
Jocelyn
Guest
My point exactly...at what cost to the other cities?
Jocelyn
Guest
Did those lead up matches in the other cities really matter? or was that just a token for them as the entree that was always only ever going to be about the final in Sydney?
Davico
Roar Pro
Not sure that the article has anything to do with the Melbourne-Sydney Rivalry?! The ATP Cup was played across the country not just in Sydney!
AR
Guest
“ The Australian summer tennis calendar was not broken in 2019. So who and why did someone try to fix it? “ Because Sydney desperately want a piece of the “events” action. It’s the same reason the NSW Govt plumped $14M into an autumn purse for the Everest, to compete with Melbourne’s Spring Carnival. And the same reason someone floats the image of the F1s driving across the Harbour Bridge in the annual “steal the Grand Prix” campaign. For such a large city, Sydney has never had much in the way of significant yearly sporting & cultural events, other than its own Syd-Hobart yacht race. Quite rightly, the NSW Govt wants to change that and is spending billions in an effort to become a player in the events calendar.