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An overview of Rod Laver Arena at night. Credit/Ben Solomon

Tennis fans will get a first glimpse of a new-look Rod Laver Arena at Australian Open 2018 as a bold new makeover starts to take shape.

As part of the $975 million Melbourne Park Redevelopment, the iconic venue is undergoing an extensive upgrade designed to keep the Australian Open ahead of the Grand Slam pack.

The most noticeable changes for fans in 2018 will be three new specialty dining outlets aimed at reducing queues for food and drinks, plus upgraded bathroom facilities and improved disability access. The exterior of the arena is also undergoing a facelift.



“The tremendous support of the Victorian Government has ensured the Australian Open leads the world in Grand Slam facilities, and the current upgrades to Rod Laver Arena will improve access and comfort for our fans,” Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley said.

“This is just the beginning of a major refurbishment of Rod Laver Arena, which is already one of the premier sports and entertainment stadiums in the world. We look forward to its completion in 2019, when there will be brand new seating and a stunning new eastern entry,” Tiley continued.

The world’s best tennis players will also be big winners, with significant backstage improvements creating a brand new player hub and enhanced surroundings and services.

“Creating a five-star service for our players is a priority for the Australian Open, and is a point of difference that makes us the favourite event for so many,” Tiley added.

“New player services for 2018 include a fully underground drop-off area with two new entry points as well as all services centralised to make it even easier to cater for players’ needs.”

The Rod Laver Arena upgrade follows the successful launch of Tanderrum Bridge as the new Australian Open entrance this year, providing a seamless link from the CBD to Melbourne Park.

“Tanderrum Bridge safely ushered hundreds of thousands of tennis fans from the city to the heart of the action and next year will be no different, with more people using the new entrance as an easier way to access the site,” Tiley explained.

Stage 3 of the Melbourne Park Redevelopment was announced earlier in the year, which will ensure Melbourne remains the global home of sport and entertainment.

Stage 3 will feature:

A new multi-purpose 5,000-seat sunken show court and arena
Central terrace with a new elevated outdoor public space
A new function centre
A media and broadcast centre
Central kitchen, loading dock and logistics hub.

Australian Open 2018 was launched in Shanghai today, with organisers unveiling two major new Chinese partners, an extended broadcast deal and a host of new initiatives designed to further entrench the tournament in the hearts and minds of Chinese fans.

During a keynote address at the China Australia-Sports Summit, hosted by AustCham Shanghai, Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley revealed the compelling numbers demonstrating China’s love affair with tennis.

“The massive interest in our event from Chinese fans is a wonderful compliment to the Australian Open, the world’s best players and the city of Melbourne,” Craig Tiley said.

“When asked why we’ve chosen China as a focus for ongoing promotion and commercial opportunities, I can honestly say that due to their love of the sport, China chose tennis, and the Australian Open.

“Consider the following figures: China has 330 million tennis fans; there are 220 million Australian Open fans in China; 14 million regular tennis players and 30,000 tennis courts – a number that’s increasing all the time.”

With a forecast for Chinese tourism numbers to hit four million a year within 10 years, representing a quarter of Australia’s inbound tourism market, Tiley emphasised that it was a natural fit for the Australian Open to focus on the travel industry, and make it as easy as possible for fans to buy tickets and access events.

Australian Open China initiatives were announced at a special launch function as follows:

China’s leading online travel agency, Ctrip, will provide direct access to Australian Open tickets to Chinese tennis fans – an historic first
A five-year partnership with premium Chinese brand Ganten
An extended and expanded broadcast partnership with iQIYI

These latest announcements add to a long list of activity in the region, including:

Staging of the sixth annual Asia Pacific Wildcard Play-off in Zhuhai (28 November-3 December), with winners awarded a wildcard into the main draw of Australian Open 2018
Plans to launch Australian Open Academies in China in the next 12 months
Year-round resources developing rich content for Australian Open WeChat and Weibo channels
Investment in resources to provide event operations, sports administration education and tennis programming throughout China
New e-commerce and online retail in China, with fans able to secure their very own piece of the Australian Open
Building on the Tennis in Schools program which has already been successfully delivered in Shanghai and Chengdu.

One of the biggest strengths of the Australian Open has been the growth of its global TV viewing audience:

More than 278 million hours of Australian Open broadcast were watched in the Asia-Pacific region
Massive year-on-year growth in China, more than 59 million people watched AO 2017, up more than 84 percent on AO 2016
More than 80,000 or 11 percent of AO 2017 attendees, were from overseas with the highest numbers from USA, New Zealand, Japan, UK and China
The top five viewing audiences by territory were Australia, China, Japan and the US
China overtook Japan in 2017 to become the number one Asia-Pacific territory by hours viewed
China was the largest growth in terms of viewing audience by any territory worldwide.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 39 percent of the global audience share on television.

More than one million people attended Australian tennis events this past summer. Nine hundred million households watched on TV, more than four million people engaged with the Australian Open on social media, 16.3 million users online.

Australian Open 2018 is set to be the most watched in the tournament’s history with expanded broadcast coverage and more digital engagement than ever before.

Ever increasing engagement on social media platforms and record figures on the Australian Open website – ausopen.com – have also contributed the event’s audience growth.

Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley said he was pleased, yet not surprised, by the record ratings.

“The numbers speak for themselves, they show our ability to engage with fans whether it be via ever-growing social media channels, the website or through the tailored broadcast options we produce,” Tiley said.

“The Tennis Australia host broadcast, media rights, in-house production and digital teams continue to deliver world class tennis to the all corners of the world.

“As we enter the fourth year as host broadcaster we are working more closely than ever before with our global broadcast partners. In 2017 we produced more than 81,000 coverage hours, and this will increase again in 2018.

Digital initiatives for Australian Open 2018

com relaunches in 2018 with a contemporary new design and smart innovative user-friendly features, available across desktop and mobile devices
The official AO app – downloaded on iPhone and Android devices more than one million times in 2017 – will bring people a truly personalised experience, allowing fans to follow players and segment news and results based on preferences in My AO
On Facebook the new AO Chatbot will provide more fan interaction than ever, serving up news, galleries and video on demand through artificial intelligence.
Australian Open 2018 host broadcast

Production of 842 matches live, including all main draw, juniors, legends and wheelchair matches plus countless practice sessions
Provide the most comprehensive broadcast coverage of any Grand Slam including up to 16 match courts during the tournament and 12 during qualifying.
AO 2017 delivered impressive numbers, smashing both domestic and international TV ratings, with highlights as follows:

Aired live in 220 territories on more than 65 different TV channels, reaching more than 900 million homes
720,616,542 hours of coverage viewed worldwide
Reached 5 million viewers nationally on final day, taking the cumulative reach to 11.8 million.
Women’s final – Serena Williams v Venus Williams

Drew the biggest audience on ESPN since moving to 3:00 am ET start
Delivered a peak domestic TV audience of 42 million.
Men’s final – Roger Federer v Rafael Nadal

Eurosport dubbed the men’s final ‘the most-watched tennis match of all time’
Domestic audience of more than 5 million people, with a peak of 4.4 million.
Website

Australian Open website attracted more than 16.3 million unique visitors, a 16 per cent increase on AO 2016
IBM Slamtracker was launched more than 20 million times, up 47 percent on AO 2016.
Social media

Total social media audience of 4,019,332
#AusOpen was tweeted 33 million times
66 million unique views and 24.408 million snap views of the AO day one live Snapchat story
More than 588,900 views on Periscope
9,175,000 million + YouTube views during Australian Open 2017
28 million + views of Twitter videos
43 million + views of Facebook videos
More than 45 million views on SnappyTV
Brightcove’s cloud platform delivered up to 17 live streams at any one time during the Australian Open, with a combined audience views of over 11 million (live streams and VOD).

Injury-plagued Thanasi Kokkinakis is set to play at the Australian Open for the first time in three years after being awarded a wildcard.

The 21-year-old has battled serious shoulder and abdominal injuries in recent years and is now hoping for a long-overdue change of luck on the fitness front.

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Wilcard: Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Wilcard: Thanasi Kokkinakis. Photo: Eddie Jim

Kokkinakis said he was incredibly grateful when Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt told him he was getting a guaranteed start at his home grand slam tournament.

"It's been tough missing the last two Australian Opens especially because it's my favourite tournament and I was 17 when I played my first one," Kokkinakis said.

"It's been a pretty tough couple of years with my body, but I've been working hard to get it right.

"I'm really grateful to Tennis Australia for the Aussie Open wildcard and can't wait to get back out there and compete in front of my friends and family."

Kokkinakis, ranked No.210 in the world, reached the second round of the Australian Open in 2014 and 2015.

Tim Smyczek received the reciprocal US wildcard this week after topping the series of play-off

The Australian Open 2018 Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off (AWP) will return to China’s sporting capital of Zhuhai later this month.

Now in its sixth year, top players from the Asia-Pacific will compete for a coveted Australian Open 2018 main draw wildcard at the world class Hengqin International Tennis Center.

Leading the men’s field this year is Soon Woo Kwon from Korea and China’s No.1 ranked player Ze Zhang.

Chinese favourite Di WU and US Open junior winner Yibing WU will also be contenders for the desired Wildcard.



Misaki Doi from Japan and last year’s runner-up Kai-Chen Chang from Chinese Taipei will headline the women’s event.



Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin won the play-off in 2017 and used his Australian Open wildcard to devastating effect, defeating former world No.1 Novak Djokovic in what was one of the upsets of the tournament.

“We are delighted to confirm that the Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off will return to Hengqin International Tennis Center for a second year,” AWP Tournament Director Isabelle Gemmel said.

“Zhuhai is one of the most progressive sporting cities in China and we are delighted to work with Huafa Sports to continue to grow our sport and attract new audiences to tennis.

“The venue is the perfect showcase for what promises to be some high quality tennis.”

“We are honoured to participate in the Australian Open and host the 2018 Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off for a second year,” Executive of Zhuhai Huafa Sports Management Cooperation Peter Lv said.

“We will maintain the highest level of standard at the Hengqin Tennis Center, home to the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai, and will provide players with an outstanding match experience.”

The Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off will feature 16-player men’s and women’s singles draws, as well as the juniors, and takes place from 28 November – 3 December 2017 at Hengqin International Tennis Centre.

To view the full entry list and for further information please visit: ausopenwildcard.com