Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Australian Open trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Australian Open opens the tennis year in the heat of a Melbourne January, and it has come a long way from a members' championship on a cricket ground in 1905 that many of the world's best players simply could not reach. This Australian Open trivia quiz covers the whole story: the years in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and even New Zealand, the grass at Kooyong, the 1988 move to Flinders Park and hard courts, the roofs, the blue surface and the 'Happy Slam' crowds that make it the best-attended major of all. Easy questions ask which city, which surface and who has the most titles. Then it gets harder: the trophies named for Norman Brookes and Daphne Akhurst, Mats Wilander's unique double, the 212th-ranked local who won in 1976, the extreme heat policy, and the 5-hour-53-minute final between Djokovic and Nadal. The last stretch is for people who know which arena used to be Show Court One and why the tournament skipped 1986. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and the tournament's own records, so you can quote them with confidence. There are 50 free questions and no sign-up. If you enjoy it, try our Wimbledon, French Open and US Open quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city is the Australian Open played?
Melbourne
The Australian Open has been played in Melbourne every year since 1972; it moved within the city to Flinders Park, later renamed Melbourne Park, in 1988.
Q 02Where does the Australian Open fall in the calendar of the four Grand Slams?
First
The Australian Open is the first Grand Slam of the year, starting in mid-January, ahead of the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
Q 03On what surface has the Australian Open been played since its 1988 move to Flinders Park?
Hard court
Since the 1988 move to Flinders Park the Australian Open has been played on hard court, a cushioned acrylic surface whose brand has changed several times.
Q 04Which surface did the Australian Open use before 1988?
Grass
Grass was the surface until 1987, when Stefan Edberg beat Pat Cash in the last final played on it before the 1988 switch.
Q 05What nickname is the Australian Open known by?
The Happy Slam
The Happy Slam is the nickname players gave the Australian Open for its relaxed midsummer atmosphere; the 2025 tournament drew more than 1.2 million spectators.
Q 06Under what name was the tournament first held in 1905?
The Australasian Championships
The tournament began in 1905 as the Australasian Championships, when Rodney Heath won the first men's title, and was renamed the Australian Championships in 1927.
Q 07Which country outside Australia has hosted the tournament?
New Zealand
New Zealand hosted twice in the tournament's early decades: Christchurch in 1906 and Hastings in 1912.
Q 08Which venue hosted the tournament from 1972 until the move to Flinders Park in 1988?
Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club
Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club hosted every edition from 1972 to 1987; attendance nearly doubled in the first year at the new Flinders Park site.
Q 09Roughly how long was the 1920s sea voyage that deterred European players from the tournament?
45 days
The voyage from Europe took about 45 days by ship in the 1920s, so few top overseas players entered; the first to fly in were the US Davis Cup team in 1946.
Q 10Why was there no Australian Open at all in 1986?
The dates moved from December to January
The dates moved from December to January: the 1985 edition ended in December and the next began in January 1987, so no tournament fell in 1986.
Q 11In which year did the Australian Championships first admit professionals and become the Australian Open?
1969
1969 was the first Australian Open, held on the Milton Courts in Brisbane and won by Rod Laver on his way to the calendar Grand Slam.
Q 12Which man won a record tenth Australian Open singles title in 2023?
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic won his tenth Australian Open in 2023, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final; he had won all ten finals he had played there.
Q 13Which Australian holds the record of eleven women's singles titles?
Margaret Court
Margaret Court won eleven Australian singles titles between 1960 and 1973, seven of them in a row from 1960 to 1966.
Q 21By 2015, how many of the tournament's main arenas had retractable roofs?
Three
Three of its main arenas have retractable roofs, a Grand Slam first achieved in 2015 when the rebuilt second show court joined the two already covered.
Q 22What is the fourth major show court, unveiled in November 2021, called?
Kia Arena
Kia Arena, a 5,000-seat stadium unveiled in November 2021 as the fourth major show court, was the centrepiece of a A$271 million redevelopment.
Q 23Which court surface brand has been used since 2020?
GreenSet
GreenSet replaced Plexicushion in 2020 as the court supplier; the surface kept the blue cushioned-acrylic look the tournament had used since 2008.
Q 14Which Australian won a record five consecutive men's titles from 1963 to 1967?
Roy Emerson
Roy Emerson, nicknamed 'Emmo', won six Australian titles including five straight from 1963 to 1967; his record of six stood until 2019.
Q 15Which Swede is the only player to have won the tournament on both grass and hard courts?
Mats Wilander
Mats Wilander won on the old lawn surface in 1983 and 1984 and on the new Rebound Ace surface in 1988, a double no other champion has managed.
Q 16Which two players won the Australian Open on both Rebound Ace and Plexicushion?
Roger Federer and Serena Williams
Roger Federer and Serena Williams each won on green Rebound Ace (Federer 2004, 2006, 2007; Williams 2003, 2005, 2007) and again on blue Plexicushion after the 2008 switch.
Q 17Which is the main show court at the tournament?
Rod Laver Arena
Rod Laver Arena, the main show court, opened in 1988 as Centre Court at the National Tennis Centre and took its present name in January 2000.
Q 18Roughly how many spectators does the main show court seat for tennis?
14,800
The main show court seats about 14,800 for tennis and was the first Grand Slam stadium with a retractable roof, so play continues in rain or extreme heat.
Q 19Which Melbourne Park arena opened in 1988 with a numbered name and was renamed in 2003?
Margaret Court Arena
Margaret Court Arena opened in 1988 as Show Court One, was renamed in 2003 and gained a retractable roof and 7,500 seats in a rebuild finished in 2015.
Q 20John Cain Arena opened in 2000 under which sponsor's name?
Vodafone
The arena opened in 2000 as Vodafone Arena and became Hisense Arena in 2008 before being renamed in 2020 for former Victorian premier John Cain.
Q 24What is the men's singles trophy called?
Norman Brookes Challenge Cup
The Norman Brookes Challenge Cup honours the 1911 champion who in 1907 became the first man from outside Britain to win Wimbledon.
Q 25The women's singles trophy is named after which five-time champion of the 1920s?
Daphne Akhurst
Daphne Akhurst won the singles in 1925, 1926, 1928, 1929 and 1930 and died in 1933 aged 29; the women's singles trophy is the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.
Q 26In 2021 the Australian Open became the first Grand Slam to do what at every match?
Use electronic line judging only
The 2021 tournament was the first major to use electronic line judging only, with no line umpires on any court, partly to cut on-site staff during the pandemic.
Q 27How does the Australian Open settle a deciding set that reaches six games all?
A first-to-10 tiebreak
A first-to-10 tiebreak, played at six games all in the deciding set, was adopted in 2019; by 2022 all four majors used the same format.
Q 28Since 2024 the tournament has started on which day of the week?
Sunday
The tournament has opened on a Sunday since 2024, adding a fifteenth day; day sessions were also cut to two matches to stop play dragging into the early hours.
Q 29In what year was the tournament's Extreme Heat Policy first introduced?
1998
The Extreme Heat Policy was introduced in 1998, the first at a Grand Slam; a revision in 2019 added a 1-to-5 heat stress scale with separate thresholds for juniors and wheelchair players.
Q 30Which brand became the tournament's official ball supplier in 2019, replacing Wilson?
Dunlop
Dunlop took over from Wilson as the official ball of the Australian Open in 2019 under a five-year agreement with Tennis Australia.