Jake Rowland

The Australian Open can look like two tournaments at once: a best-of-five test for men in singles, a best-of-three contest for women, and different scoring rules again in doubles. The basic format is straightforward once you know how the draws, sets and tiebreaks fit together. How the Australian Open singles draw works The men’s and … Read more

The Australian Open final can turn on one brave decision: a second serve attacked, a return taken early, or a rally extended until a tired opponent blinks. The finalists are the two players who have survived those tests across the tournament—and their names tell a story about changing champions, playing styles and pressure in Melbourne. … Read more

The Australian Open draw turns a 128-player field into a tournament full of possible routes, roadblocks and surprise matchups. If you are checking who your favourite might face, the key is to look beyond the first-round opponent: the bracket also shows where the top seeds sit, when two rivals could meet and how a qualifier … Read more

At the Australian Open, a rally on an outside court can feel very different from one under the roof at Rod Laver Arena—even though both are played on hard courts. The surface, Melbourne’s summer weather and the setting all shape how the ball moves and what players can do with it. Knowing the basics makes … Read more

A packed Australian Open session can feel like a city gathering around a tennis court. But when you see a headline saying the tournament welcomed more than a million people, that number does not mean a million different fans passed through the gates. It usually counts visits across the whole event, including people who attend … Read more