Serving up a tennis feast
Fans in for treat as Aussies hit courts
AUSTRALIAN tennis stars from Ash Barty to Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic will finetune their grand slam preparations at Melbourne Park next week.
Fans are set for a smorgasbord of tennis — at a bargainbasement price — as more than 250 players compete for $2.37 million prizemoney in a packed schedule never seen the week before an Australian Open.
That’s what’s up for grabs from Sunday across three WTA 500 tournaments and two ATP 250 events dubbed the “Melbourne Summer Series”.
The events will all be played in the Margaret Court Arena Zone.
Melbourne Park has been broken into three zones and fans won’t be able to move between them, with Rod Laver Arena and John Cain Arena the other two, for ticketing purposes. The ATP Cup teams’ competition is also being held from Tuesday in those latter two zones.
The other tournaments are named in honour of six key Victorian regions that suffered from last year’s devastating bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Gippsland Trophy and Yarra Valley Classic WTA events begin on Sunday, while the Grampians Trophy — introduced for players in hard quarantine — starts on Wednesday.
On the men’s side, the Great Ocean Road Open and Murray River Open kick off on Monday.
There will also be the Phillip Island Trophy, a WTA 250 tournament, in the second week of the Open, while the WTA Adelaide International is scheduled for after the grand slam.
Tickets start at $20 for adults and $5 for children through Ticketmaster.