It wasn’t always the heavenly Grand Slam it is today. Born in 1905 and officially recognized as a Major in 1924, the Australian Open, nicknamed the “happy slam” (“happy slam”) had a difficult start alongside its three partners, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. “For us, it was not a Grand Slam tournament, we did not consider it as such,” remembered at the microphone of Eurosport in January 2023, the Swede Mats Wilander, player between 1981 and 1996.
“Believe it or not, for me there were a lot of events that weren’t Grand Slams but that I ranked well above the Australian Open, explained in turn the American John McEnroe (1977 – 1992) in the same article. The Masters, especially at Madison Square Garden, or the WTC in Dallas were much more important events than the Australian Open, which, to be frank, I had absolutely nothing to do.” For a decade, between the 1970s and 1980s, at the start of the Open era (starting in 1968) and the professionalization of tennis, the Grand Slam was shunned by the best players in the world, like the two former numbers 1, cited above.
This lack of recognition can be explained firstly by the remoteness of this tournament located in the antipodes. “What he suffered from was not so much a lack of image, but a problem of distance,” highlights Philippe Tétard, lecturer in contemporary history at Le Mans University and specialist in the history of sport.
If today it takes a day of travel, “in 1947, it took four days and nine stopovers to get there by plane, continues this specialist. Before the war, he It even took two months to reach Australia by boat, at the time when there were no transcontinental air links. The other side of the Atlantic was accessible by liner in about a week inbetween the wars.” Thus, few players made the trip, which was not within the reach of all budgets.
“When they went there, they did it once in their career,” assures François Thomazeau, writer, journalist, former press chief at Roland-Garros, and author last October of Rafael Nadal, The Greatest of All Time (In emphasis Editions).
“Most of the great pre-war players played regularly in the three major tournaments and did not necessarily play in Australia.”
François Thomazeau, writer and journalist, tennis specialistat franceinfo: sport
This was also the choice of the Swedish player, Björn Borg, who only participated once at the Australian Open in 1974, where he reached the round of 16. “Some players like Borg wanted to win all four Grand Slams in the same year. But, as he always lost in the United States, he never went to Australia to play this fourth Grand Slam, which was far away and which was of no use to him. nothing in quotes”, says François Jauffret, former 20th in the world, and semi-finalist at Roland-Garros in 1966 and 1974.
For the Davis Cup selection record holder (35), “there was no particular reason to go and play in Australia”, he admits before specifying: “It was an amateur tournament, not very common, the travel of which was expensive, and without ‘prize money’ [avant l’ère open]. It was a completely different time, which explains why many did not participate in this tournament.”
-In addition to its remoteness, the tournament remains for several decades “a championship above all from Australasia [qui comprend l’Australie, l’archipel de la Nouvelle-Zélande et la Nouvelle-Guinée, ainsi que les îles plus petites les entourant] then a national championship, amateur as was customary”, also underlines the sports historian, Philippe Tétard. In addition, the tournament takes place between November and December, without a fixed date, just like the host city of the tournament which changes from year to year. It would be necessary to wait until 1972 for it to settle down permanently in Melbourne.
So many reasons which left the Australian Grand Slam in the lurch. EBetween 1905 and 1976, only 12 non-Australian players and 10 non-Australian female players (between 1922 and 1979) lifted the cup. Enough to qualify the oldest prize list of the tournament. Moreover, since 1977, no local has won with the exception of Ashleigh Barty in 2022.
The surface initially chosen is not to its advantage either. “The tOur tournament was played on grass until 1987, before moving to Rebound Ace, a hard surface. It was a bit of a duplication with Wimbledon.” notes Philippe Tétard. “The prestigious tournament on grass was Wimbledon. And for there to really be this Grand Slam effect in Australia, there had to be another surface. The idea was that each tournament would be identified by its surface. So much so that in the years 1910-1920, what was considered the fourth round of the Grand Slam more than the Australian Open, it“was the Stockholm tournament which was played on a wooden floor”, specifies François Thomazeau.
In this context, and without a surface that distinguishes it, the tournament was even threatened with losing its status as a Grand Slam tournament in the early 1980s. There was already talk of its potential replacement, the Masters. However, the organizers do not let themselves be discouraged.
The year 1983 is often cited as a turning point in the tournament’s survival. This year, Mats Wilander, who is in Australia for the Davis Cup, took the opportunity to participate in the tournament, alongsideIvan Lendl et John McEnroe. “As they are among the best players in the world, and even if most of them are not there, it gives a color to the Australian Open that this tournament did not have until then,” develops Philippe Tétard. But the tipping point came at the end of the 1980s. “Several elements which combine, continues the lecturer. First, the shift of the tournament from December, over the Christmas period, to January.” Then, the tournament moved from Kooyong (in the suburbs of Melbourne) to Flinders Park with the Rod Laver Arena in 1988 and the transition from grass to hard. The tournament is also modeled on the 128-player system, which meant that at the end of the 1980s, the Australian Open “meets all the conditions to belong to the Grand Slam circus”.
At the same time, all eyes are on Australia, which experienced its golden age of tennis between the 1960s and 1980s, notably with Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe and Rod Laver, but also Margaret Court on the women’s circuit. “There is this period where, because the best players in the world are Australian, their tournament will inevitably become more important.” adds François Thomazeau. There is also the beginning of the Open era, synonymous with professionalization, which allows the creation of the ATP and WTA circuit with a series of tournaments, with prizes. Enough to increase its attractiveness.
In 2024, a hundred years after obtaining its Grand Slam status, is the Australian Open still the fourth wheel of the carriage? “From the start of the new organization, helping professionalism, the best have come, agrees François Jauffret. The Australian Open didn’t become what it is today overnight, but it quickly took on its reputation.” For François Thomazeau on the other hand, if the trend “evened out a little”, a “a certain hierarchy still holds, where the prestige remains at Wimbledon first, then the US Open, Roland-Garros and finally the Australian Open. This remains a bit in the collective tennis unconscious due to its past history “.
