Australian Open 2008 has set
crowd records with the current number of fans through the gates during the tournament standing at
584,476 (at the end of Day 13), already surpassing last year’s previous record for overall attendance of 554,858. It is the
ninth consecutive year that the tournament has attracted more than half a million patrons.
Day four of the tournament saw another record set with
the highest ever Grand Slam day/night combined attendance, with
62,885 fans through the gates. This broke the record of 61,083 which was achieved by the US Open on Saturday 1 September 2007.
A star-studded men’s and women’s singles draw included
eight men’s Grand Slam champions and
seven women’s Grand Slam champions and
all of the top 32 women and
30 of the top 32 men . A total of
45 nations were represented in the singles main draws (32 countries in the men’s singles and 37 countries in the women’s singles).
The tournament saw the incredible breakthrough performance of
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga from France who came through the draw unseeded to reach the final, upsetting seeds Andy Murray (9), Richard Gasquet (8), Mikhail Youzhny (14) and world No.2 Rafael Nadal en route.
Aussie
Casey Dellacqua also enjoyed an incredible Australian Open reaching the fourth round with wins over No.15 seed Patty Schnyder and former Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo (18). Dellacqua’s performance saw her overtake Samantha Stosur as Australian No.1 and she improved her world ranking from No. 78 to a projected ranking in the 50s.
Entertaining the crowds were some of Australia’s top music acts including
The Veronicas, Thirsty Merc, James Reyne, Mental as Anything, Evermore and Jess McAvoy.Those who couldn’t get along in person made sure they kept in touch through the official website
www.australianopen.com powered by IBM. At the close of play on Day 13,
6.6 million different people had already visited the official Australian Open website, up nearly 50% on last year’s figures for the same time. To date they have made over
30 million visits to the web site, with
30 percent of those visits from Europe,
22 percent from the USA,
16 percent from Australia and
14 percent from Asia. Overall
www.australianopen.com has delivered more than
200 million page views , an increase of 55 percent on the same figure for 2007.
Favourite player profiles among the fans on
www.australianopen.com saw World No.1
Roger Federer and this year’s women’s finalist
Ana Ivanovic top the poll ahead of
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and
Maria Sharapova .
Federer also leads the men’s competition for aces served at 91, with
Serena Williams topping the women’s at 40.
The fastest serves of the tournament were recorded by
Andy Roddick (237km/h) while
Venus and Serena Williams recorded the women’s fastest serves
(199km/h). Helping the players serve were the racket stringers who strung more than
3,067 rackets using over
37 km worth of string.
1654 members of the media were accredited at Australian Open 2008 (
664 international,
990 Australian).
And making it all happen behind the scenes were over
4,500 members of staff, including
319 Aviva Ballkids, 365 umpires, 195 courtesy car drivers and
45 statisticians. A fleet of 81 official cars supplied by the tournament’s major sponsor Kia Motors made in excess of 35,000 journeys transporting players to and from Melbourne Park, clocking up more than
300,000 km .
Famous faces watching the action included
Nicole Kidman and husband
Keith Urban,
Rachel Griffiths, Miranda Otto,
Sting, Burt Bacharach, Shane Warne, Jennifer Hawkins, Sonia Kruger, Vanessa Amorosi, Anthony Callea, Chris Judd and Grant Hackett.Garnier World in Garden Square has seen more than
28,500 people through its doors, with the busiest day being Garnier Girls Day when over
2,000 patrons visited .
Over the fortnight
44 members of Garnier staff provided
10,500 mini facials, 11,000 hair styles and
7,000 massages and used
42,750 bobby pins .
The most popular item from the
Australian Open retail shop was the official player towel with
20,500 sold at Melbourne Park and online (includes four different towel types and designs). The men’s and women’s basic logo t-shirts were also must have souvenir items this year with
2,500 men’s t-shirts and
2,300 women’s being sold.
Australian Open 2008, presented by Kia Motors in association with Garnier and GE Money, will take place at Melbourne Park, Melbourne, from January 14–27, 2008.
All members of the public wishing to find out up-to-date information about Australian Open 2008 should call the Tournament Information Line on +61 3 9914 4677.
