The Australian Open comprises one of the four Grand Slam tournaments in tennis, along with the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Tennis Open. The Grand Slams are generally regarded as the most important and significant yearly competitions in the sport, and yield the most prize money and ranking points of any tournament; for these reasons, they generate the most prestige for the champions, and all of the top ranked players generally make every effort to compete, unless injured. As for the Australian, it has been held annually at Melbourne Park since 1905, typically over two weeks in January.

Though formerly held on a grass court surface, similarly to Wimbledon, since 1987 the court surface for the Australian has been hard court, more like the US Open. Events that take place in the Australian Open include the Men's Singles, the Women's Singles, the Men's Doubles, the Women's Doubles, and the Mixed Doubles events. The Open is notorious for its extremely high temperatures, since it takes place in the Australian summer; many players over the years have had to forfeit matches due to heat exhaustion or fatigue, though recently tournament officials have begun closing the retractable roofs in the major stadiums to reduce temperatures. On the positive side, however, the Australian Open has seldom had to deal with rain delays, unlike Wimbledon, for instance. Interestingly, Australians have had great difficulty on their home turf at the Open over the past decade, while Europeans such as Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have had much success at Melbourne Park, each winning at least one championship. Americans, such as Serena Williams and Andre Agassi, have also done quite well at the Australian. Since it is the first major tournament of the year, the Australian is a good indicator of a player or a doubles team's chances of doing well for the rest of the season. Watch for the athletes to be attracted as well by the near million dollar purse for the men's and women's championships Down Under.

The Australian Open is not technically broadcast on live Internet feeds; highlights and recap videos are available on the official website, at this link: http://www.australianopentv.com/page/latesthighlights. The fourth day of the Open, however, is being broadcast live on ABC Grandstand http://www.abc.net.au/sport/stories/2010/01/18/2794475.htm?site=sport§ion=all

More highlights can be seen on Yahoo sports http://sports.yahoo.com/ten