Australian Open 2020 a big draw

Article posted by Coliseum, February 19^th, 2020

Image: Ticketmaster

The Australian Open which was held from January 20, 2020 to February 2, 2020, attracted crowds by the horde over its 14 days. Tennis Australia (the governing body for tennis in Australia) has revealed that a total of 812,174 fans attended the Australian Open, breaking the previous attendance record of 796,435 from 2019.

It was almost an edge-of-the-seat kind of thrilling championship with numero uno players from all over the globe giving the crowds a splendid time at Melbourne Park. Not only was the event a huge hit among fans, but it also facilitated the global tennis community to raise more than $6 million for bushfire relief.

Melbourne Park is a sports venue in the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

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On court, Sofia Kenin of the USA and the ‘King of Tennis’ Novak Djokovic of Serbia gave a lot of nail-biting moments to the supporters, with Kenin securing her first Grand Slam title.

Apart from the record overall turnout, for the fourth time in the tournament’s history, attendance in the first week surpassed 500,000 fans, with 550,645 attendees, smashing the previous record of 537,226 for Australian Open 2019 while the middle Saturday attracted a record audience of 93,709.

The media coverage figure was also very impressive with almost 900 matches given live coverage across all draws. Twenty one courts in total enjoyed live cameras at any one time across Melbourne Park.

Also, 850 metre² of digital LED screens were used covering all three stadiums at Melbourne Park – Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and Melbourne Arena.

The online traffic was also huge with maximum viewers from Australia, United States, Germany, India and the UK.

However, the event was also marred by on-court protest by tennis icons Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe leading fresh calls for Melbourne Park’s Margaret Court Arena to be renamed as a result of Court’s anti same-sex marriage stance.

Navratilova and McEnroe walked with an ‘Evonne Goolagong Arena’ banner, advocating that the Court’s name be stripped from the venue in favor of Goolagong, who won 14 Grand Slams as a player.

Evonne Goolagong is an Australian former World No. 1 tennis player. She was one of the world’s leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s, and the number one Australian pro on tour after the retirement of Margaret Court.

Margaret Smith Court is a retired Australian tennis player and former World No. 1. She amassed more major titles than any other player in history and is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The arena has been named after her.

The event also saw more than 2050 ANZ Tennis Hot Shots participants playing in Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne Arena, show courts and multiple outside courts ahead of the day sessions.

The fun and frolic at AO Ballpark – presented by Emirates and the AO Hilltop – was savored by more than 180,000 children and parents which boasts a lot of offerings for kids. It registered twice the figure of 2019 – last year the figure stood at 80,000.

Preceding the match, Kids Tennis Day on January 18 was graced by a record 19,454 spectators.

Popular children’s characters including the likes of Baby Shark, Peppa Pig, Batman, Wonder Woman and Paddington were all exhibited to entertain the crowds.

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