The 2011 Australian Open

The Australian Open is one of the four major tennis tournaments in the world, also referred to as one of the Grand Slams, the others being the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The tournament offers some of the highest prize money, high points for world rankings, and lots of public attention. Being summer in the Southern Hemisphere right now, Australia presents the perfect weather for players and spectators.

Players started arriving in Melbourne, Victoria, 2 or 3 days before it began and everyone was eager to see who would play this year. Because it is such a big tournament all the top seeded players come to participate. Big names such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Caroline Wozniacki, Fernando Verdasco and Andy Murray drew crowds to their first matches, but so did some of the lesser known players such as Gilles Simon, Dominika Cibulkova, Na Li and Juan Monaco.

Some of Australia’s favourite tennis commentators are also back this year. Jim Courier and Henri Leconte provide a brilliant, and often humorous, insight to matches as they are played. Tennis fans come from all over the world to watch this event. The crowd is mainly Australian, but there are Spanish, French, Russian, Slovakian, Serbian, Chinese and many other nationalities that come to support their favourite players.

One of the most anticipated events that marked the beginning of the tournament was the Rally For Relief: A charity match to raise funds for the recent flooding in Queensland. Well known players Andy Roddick, Leyton Hewitt, Novak Djokovic, Sam Stosur, Patrick Rafter and many others were given microphones and played a fun, no rules, stress free tennis match that had the crowd in hysterics. Not only did it give these usually focused players a chance to show their fun side, but the event managed to raise over $1.5 million and was a great success.

With round one of the tournament coming to a close after some gruelling competition, players are getting ready for their second game which may prove to be even more challenging for them. If you miss it on television, you can follow the matches online at the Official Australian Open Website which has live scores as the matches are played. The 2011 Australian Open is expected to have some exhilarating matches, and promises to be a wonderful opener to the tennis season this year.