2018 AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS BY THE NUMBERS • RAFA HAD MOST RACKETS STRUNG

Written by: Staff on 28th January 2018

Tennis Australian Open 2018 - welcome ceremony

2018 AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS BY THE NUMBERS • RAFA HAD MOST RACKETS STRUNG

epa06425967 Australian Open ballkids are welcomed by Swiss tennis player Stan Wawrinka (not pictured) during an official welcoming ceremony for the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 09 January 2018. The Australian Open starts on 15 January. EPA-EFE/LUIS ENRIQUE ASCUI AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

Australian Open ballkids are welcomed by Swiss tennis player Stan Wawrinka (not pictured) during an official welcoming ceremony for the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 09 January 2018. The Australian Open starts on 15 January. EPA-EFE/LUIS ENRIQUE ASCUI

Australian Open 20I8 • Tidbits Of Important Facts As Well As Silly Ones • RAFA Had The most Rackets Strung

For the past two weeks the world’s top tennis players have excited and delighted fans at Melbourne Park.

Tidbits And more • Some of these numbers are amazing

World No. 2 Roger Federer (SUI) won his 20th Grand Slam title after defeating World No.6 Marin Cilic (CRO) 6-2 6-7(5) 6-3 3-6 6-1. Roger was presented the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup by Ashley Cooper AO on the 60th anniversary of his 1958 title win

• Great to to see the great Auzzie Legend Martin Mulligan of Fila or Mr. FILA in the box with Marin.

World No.2 Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) won her maiden Grand Slam crown with victory over world No.1 Simona Halep (ROU) 7-6(2) 3-6 6-4. Serena was presented the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup by tennis legend Billie Jean King (USA) on the 50th anniversary of her 1968 title win

* Seventh seeds Oliver Marach (AUT) and Mate Pavic (CRO) claimed their maiden Grand Slam doubles title, defeating [11] Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL) and Robert Farah (COL) 6-4 6-4

* Fifth seeds Timea Babos (HUN) and Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) defeated Russian duo Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina to take out the women’s doubles, posting a 6-4 6-3 win

* Eighth seeds Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN) and Mate Pavic (CRO) defeated [5] Timea Bopas (HUN) and Rohan Bopanna (IND) 2-6 6-4 [11-9] to win the mixed doubles title

* Seventh seed Sebastian Korda (USA) won his first Grand Slam juniors title, defeating [6] Chun Hsin Tseng (TPE) 7-6(6) 6-4 in the boys’ singles.

• Sebastian is the son of a former AUSTRALIAN Open winner Petr Korda.

* Second seed En Shuo Liang (TPE) defeated Clara Burel (FRA) 6-3 6-4 to win the girls’ singles title

* Seventh seeds Hugo Gaston (FRA) and Clement Tabur (FRA) defeated Rudolf Molleker (GER) and Henri Squire (GER) 6-2 6-2

* Top seeds En Shuo Liang (TPE) and Xinyu Wang (CHN) defeated [7] Violet Apisah (PNG) and Lulu Sun (SUI) 7-6(4) 4-6 [10-5] to claim the junior girls’ doubles title

•This is especially amazing how exciting the wheelchair tennis was. Dylan’s a great athlete as well as ambassador and inspiration for tennis.

* Dylan Alcott (AUS) won the quad wheelchair singles title for the fourth consecutive year 7-6(1) 6-1 over top seed David Wagner (USA). Dylan also teamed-up with Heath Davidson (AUS) to win the quad wheelchair doubles

* Shingo Kunieda (JPN) and Diede De Groot (NED) took out the men’s and women’s wheelchair singles titles respectively. Second seeds Stephane Houdet (FRA) and Nicolas Peifer (FRA) won the men’s wheelchair doubles, while Marjolein Buis (NED) and Yui Kamiji (JPN) claimed the women’s wheelchair doubles.

* Fifty-six nations were represented among the 256 players competing in main draw singles. With 31 players in action the USA was the most represented nation overall followed by France with 18

• If 56 nations can get along and share locker rooms and lunch rooms and practice courts. Oh , and doubles partnerships. Why can’t we find World peace via tennis.?

* A total of 745 players from 72 nations competed across all events, including juniors, qualifying, wheelies and legends

• again. Repeat. World Peace is possible Via TENNIS.

* Jack Sock (USA) and Alexander Zverev (GER) both sent down the fastest serve of the tournament so far at 222km/h

* Ivo Karlovic (CRO) has served the most aces of any player in the men’s draw so far with 126 to his name

* Madison Keys (USA) and Timea Babos (HUN) posted the fastest serve in the women’s draw at 192km/h

* Naomi Osaka (JPN) served the most aces of any female player with 36 in total

* Seventeen Australians took part in the main draw singles, with six players advancing to the second round, two to the third round and one to the fourth round

* Aussie [17] Nick Kyrgios won his way into the fourth round with wins over Rogerio Dutra Silva (BRA), Viktor Troicki (SRB) and [15] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) before falling to [3] Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)

* Australian rising-star [18] Ashleigh Barty won her way to the third round with wins over Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) and Camilla Giorgi (ITA) before falling to Naomi Osaka (JPN).

Attendance

* In 2018, a record 743,667 fans shared in the excitement of the Australian Open, smashing the previous attendance record of 728,763 set in 2017

* For the second time in the tournament’s history, attendance in the first week surpassed 500,000 fans with 505,443. It beats the previous record of 503,382 for Australian Open 2017

* Coopers Saturday on the middle weekend of the tournament was the busiest of any day/night in tournament history, with 87,438 fans on site at Melbourne Park

* Eight sessions drew a record crowd including the first Tuesday day, first Saturday day, second Monday day and second Wednesday day and night.

* The FAST4 Showdown in Sydney on Monday 8 January saw Nick Kyrgios, Lleyton Hewitt and captain Wally Masur take on Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov and captain Thomas Johansson in a blockbuster event held at Ken Rosewall Arena for the first time. The event showcased the innovative FAST4 format developed by Tennis Australia and launched in 2015.

* Tiebreak Tens was held on Margaret Court Arena for the first time on Wednesday 10 January. The event saw Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Milos Raonic, Dominic Thiem, Nick Kyrgios, Lucas Pouille, Lleyton Hewitt and eventual winner Tomas Berdych compete.

* The sixth annual Kids Tennis Day on Saturday 13 January saw Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Milos Raonic and Caroline Wozniacki, along with a surprise visit from Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis who presented one lucky winner with a trip to Disneyland. A total of 16,129 attended the event at Melbourne Park.

* Famous faces attended the event including: Will Smith, Will Ferrell, Gordon Ramsay, Chris Hemsworth, Eric Bana, Mark Webber, Dannii Minogue, Dave Hughes Olympia Valance, Steve Smith, Molly Meldrum, Carrie Bickmore, Jessica McNamee, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, David Campbell, Manu Feildel, Andy Lee, Lauren Phillips, Tom Hawkins, Peter Helliar, Dami Im, Jimmy Rollins, Gary Ablett Jr, Chris and Rebecca Judd, Emma Watkins and Lachy Gillespie (The Wiggles), Patrick Dangerfield, Jessica Gomes, Tessa James, Mack Horton, Lisa Wilkinson, Waleed Aly, Joel Creasey, Michael Klim, Livinia Nixon, Marcus Bontempelli, Joel Selwood, Jimmy and Nadia Bartel, Kate Waterhouse, Luke Ricketson, Neale Daniher, Michael Klim, Billy Brownless, Rob Mills, Michelle Payne Glenn Maxwell, Alex Nation, Peter Siddle, Glenn Maxwell, Ricky Ponting, Travis Cloke, Steve Hooker, Jared Talent, Anthony Callea, Tim Campbell, Silvana Philippoussis, Bernard Curry, Montana Cox, Travis Cloke, Lola Berry, Jacinta Stapleton.

* The tournament held its third edition of the Australian Open Inspirational Series as part of women’s semifinals day. The theme for this special symposium was Empowering Leaders and focused on how to be an agent for change. Billie Jean King was the special guest at the event and she was honoured as the Australian Open Woman of the Year on Rod Laver Arena later in the day. Other guests included Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, Jelena Dokic, Ann Cairns, Sam Mostyn, Natasha Stott Despoja and Holly Ransom.

• as well as the Great coaches conference Craig Cignarelli wrote about.

* Evonne Goolagong-Cawley was presented with her Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AC) in a special ceremony by the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, Sir Peter Cosgrove, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the Order of Australia.

* Australian tennis great Mal Anderson was honoured at the annual Legends Lunch. In 1957, Anderson was the first unseeded player to win the US National Singles Championships. He played successfully on the Australian Davis Cup team in 1957, 1958, 1972 and 1973, helping the Aussies claim the 1957 and 1973 championships, both against the United States. Anderson was joined at the celebratory event by fellow legends of the sport including Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, Neale Fraser, Ashley Cooper, Roy Emerson, Martina Navratilova, Lindsay Davenport, Goran Ivanisevic, Pat Cash and more.

* The most popular players on the website were Hyeon Chung (KOR) with 518,233 page views, followed by Roger Federer (SUI) 371,863, Kyle Edmund (GBR) 245,096 and Simona Halep (ROU) 202,915

• This is awesome. The Brilliant journalist from the U.K. Alix Ramsay had the most read story. Bravo Alix!

* The AO Live Blog was viewed 744,083 times and the most viewed article was ‘Federer into final as Chung retires’ by Alix Ramsay, with 234,201 page views.

* Twitter accounted for the greatest audience growth, with 58K new followers however You Tube was the fastest mover with 22.5 percent subscriber growth.

* As the AO’s official Facebook page tipped over 2 million, Instagram harnessed 3,533,743 engagements – the most for any channel.

* AO Twitter had 14.1 million video views, 1.1 million likes, 317.7k retweets, the #AusOpen hashtag was used 862,800 times

* Most popular post on Instagram ‘Two great champions: @dylanalcott runs into @rogerfederer after winning his 4th consecutive #AusOpen

• great. A must see. Roger sneaking around the corner in back hallway to surprise Dylan.

* More than 10,000 fans took a GIF in front of the giant Kia Racquet in garden square

* There were 26,329,362 views on Youtube which added up to 63,606,272 minutes watched or 1.2 centuries

* There were over 9,175,000 million views on YouTube during Australian Open 2017

* Most popular clip of the tournament on YouTube was “Will Ferrell interviews Roger Federer live on Rod Laver Arena | Australian Open 2018”

* The top video on ausopen.com was Hyeon Chung v Roger Federer match highlights (SF)

* The Yonex stringers hut restrung more than 5200 racquets, using more than 60 km of string

* Rafael Nadal had the most racquets restrung of all players in the main draw, sending 60 racquets to the stringers

* 350 Australian Open ballkids proudly fueled by Vegemite aged between the ages of 12 and 15 participated including 304 from Victoria, three from Queensland, six from New South Wales, five from South Australia, two from Tasmania, two from Western Australia, 20 from Korea, six from China and two from France.

* There were 21 sets of siblings including four sets of twins amongst the Australian Open 2018 Vegemite ballkid squad.

* Fifteen-year-olds Emma Wong (Doncaster East, Vic) and Aidan Chu (Mont Albert North, Vic) received the Most Outstanding Ballkid Award for 2018, awarded to the top two ballkids each year

* Players were transported by a fleet of 120 Kia cars during the tournament with more than 400,000 kilometres covered over 21,000 trips by 270 drivers and 23 operational staff

* There was a total of 383 chair and line umpires officiating at the tournament including 96 from overseas representing 37 countries, and 130 from interstate.

* More than 1000 members from 24 regional ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Community Play tennis clubs across Victoria were invited to spend the day at the tennis to mark ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Day on Thursday 18 January. Each club had the opportunity to meet ANZ Tennis ambassador and four-time Australian Open quad wheelchair winner Dylan Alcott

More than 140 ANZ Tennis Hot Shots players had the opportunity to toss the coin for a main draw singles match during the tournament

* One of the biggest partnerships in Australian sporting history was cemented at AO 2018 with Tennis Australia signing a landmark five-year extension with Major sponsor Kia Motors

* New Partners for AO 2018 included highly popular brand The Walt Disney Company, iconic Australian brands Vegemite and Country Road, as well as Barilla, NGV and Ganten.

* Players including world No.9 Rafael Nadal (ESP), quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS), world No.8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA), Sam Stosur (AUS) and Elena Vesnina (RUS) participated in video interviews for Kia Open Drive. Videos can be viewed on the official Australian Open YouTube channel

* More than 15,000 fans soared to new heights riding on the free Mastercard Ferris Wheel at AO Festival

* More than 11,000 fans drove the great ocean road or sped through Mt Panorama in the ultimate Kia Stinger VR Experience

* Tennis fans consumed more than 150,000 Lavazza coffees

* Close to 90,000 Aperol Spritz were consumed

* More than 35,000 Sushi Sushi packs were consumed

* More than 11,000 Gazi chips were consumed

* More than 2,850 pieces of Mamasita street corn was consumed

* 4169 diners enjoyed the innovative Japanese experience at Nobu

* 4579 visitors enjoyed the views from the Rockpool pop up restaurant on the balcony at Hisense

* The first ever AO Chef Series at the Glasshouse served more than 3000 diners who enjoyed premium cuisine from Australian and internationally acclaimed chefs Peter Gilmore, Angela Hartnett, Alejandro Saravia and Jake Nicolson.

* The AO Shop sold more than 35,000 caps, 26,565 towels and more than 6000 Wilson AO 2018 Jumbo Balls (lower the price and sell more)

* More than 3000 cheese toasties and Vegemite and cheese toasties were eaten at the AO Ballpark

* Billie Jean King was honoured as Australian Open Woman of the Year at an on-court ceremony at Rod Laver Arena on women’s semifinal

* The Kia Ball Drive was back for a second year, giving fans the chance to purchase a used AO tennis ball for a gold coin donation from their stand in Garden Square, with proceeds going to AO Community Grants, supporting local tennis programs with a focus on improving diversity and inclusion across Australia,

* The Australian Tennis Championships is Australia’s largest annual event for people with an intellectual impairment, with the finals and presentations staged at Melbourne Park on Australian Open finals weekend.

* There were 5,127 Practice Desk bookings,

• 2,280 laundry bookings

• 19,944 transport bookings

We want to thank a few of the sponsors •

Kia Motors • ANZ • Jacobs Creek • Rolex • Barilla

Topics: 10sballs, 2018 Australian Open, AO 2018, AO tennis, Atp, Australia, Australian Open final, Australian Open Tennis, Grand Slam, Marin Cilic, Melbourne, Tennis