How the Australian Open became a tennis Silicon Valley, from roofs to Party Courts

Melbourne, Australia – there are lots of reasons to travel to Melbourne for the Australian Open every January, especially from a winter climate.

It is sunny, it’s warm and Aussies in Melbourne Park are good with beer at noon and jokes all day. Roger Federer was excellent when he was called the “Happy Slam” with the nickname at this event.

The Australian Open also don’t treat tennis like a fragile museum piece that ought to never be touched or optimized because “this is not the way it is” or considered one of these other, having to make use of the guards of the sport to make use of their To rationalize stodginity.

This is the signal Grand Slam: the event that begins every season and offers a window within the tennis with remarkable and deliberate regularity on the north bank of the Yarra River. Revolting roofs; Tiebreaks resolve 10 points; Cameras within the Player tunnels and fullness -Cartoon tennis stars: every little thing made up for here. What California is in America was often Australia for tennis – the laboratory where recent things are managed for a test drive before they’re pushed out in so many other places.

“We always tried to continue the business,” said Machar Reid, head of the innovation for Tennis Australia, in an interview in Melbourne.

This 12 months's innovations were particularly visible. Trainers sit in pods on the three predominant dishes with tablet computers, which with live a possible jewel under the noise.

Even players who were against it to permit coaching that actually hated to have a rule against coaching when a match -match -out -out -out -out -out -out -outboard.

“I always thought that tennis was an individual sport in which they have to find out things themselves in a way,” said Alexander Zverev, World No. 2.

“If tennis goes that way, it should be 100 percent in this way.”

Novak Djokovic and his trainer Andy Murray talk between the sets. Iga Swiatek and her trainer Wim Fissette act between the points. This kind of proximity is after all for a tournament that has modified its lower abdomen – the tunnel under the Melbourne Park, through which the players are housed and one of the best on the earth enables itself to freely and privately between the gym, the lounge and its games, Moving the fists and their games and bumping and bumping fists and bumping and bumping fists and bumping and fisting fists and talking about shop while going – in a giant big brother live feed.

It might be a secure bet that every little thing will soon come to a tournament near you. Maybe not the large brother.

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The AO, because it calls itself (a bit of less great than Wimbledon's “The Championships”), was the primary Grand Slam on which a pull -in roof, then two, then three. It was the primary that brought cameras into the stadium's intestine once they followed the players once they went through this unusual tunnel with all of the photos and names of earlier champions.

According to organizers, the web camera first became a predominant drawback here. It had the primary heat scale and the primary air quality scale.

The US Open Fashion itself as a breeding ground for food, style and tennis technology. Tennis Australia has received some warmth for this 12 months this 12 months, because the tournament and another Grand Slams have removed the electronic Let Sensor. The chairman referee hits the decision based on whether you hear the ball ticks on the web. A system tournament officer is reliable.

Players don't agree. Zverev called it “pretty ridiculous”.

“Every single corner of every little thing has a camera. We have a video check and all high-end technologies that we could have. But an easy Letter -machine that we now have used prior to now 25 years shouldn’t be available for a Grand Slam. “

The chances are good that most spectators don't make it out. The fans come to tennis at the Australian Open, but stay at the music festival.

All afternoon and in the evening there are guitarists and singers who appear in the main square between the dishes, where the fans take a break from the games – if they ever make it to them. These sofas and pillows over the shaded, artificial grass in which the music plays ensure a terribly pleasant place to spend an evening, the camp and whiskey sips.

Last 12 months, the tournament presented innovations – based on tennis standards – that were long overdue.

Usher's began to have people taking their places between every game as a substitute of getting to attend for a change. The old rule punishes the fans because they went to the bathroom and so they may miss an 20 -minute motion. The players were easily caught on the primary day, but quickly got used to it, and the change has spread elsewhere, especially in the upper stages.

“We were a bit behind the opposite sports with changes and tried to maintain the pace with the event of society and the brand new generation, of which everyone knows that it doesn’t have a lot attention to attention, and so they want the movement . Djokovic said on Thursday evening after his victory within the third round against Tomas Machac. “This is a way to really open a little more and have no strict rules.”

There was one other change – a bar and a café next to a dish as a substitute of a bank of stands, with music and without noise throughout the game. There was one last 12 months. There is one other one this 12 months. And just when you bring a toddler to a tennis match or get a friend away from the campaign for a couple of meters, it becomes feasible. Watching tennis now not looks like the punishment will profit your parents once they behave badly: sit still and be quiet for the subsequent three hours!

In the afternoon of the primary Saturday, Rachel and Miki Petrovic, who had rested on their annual trip to the Australian Open from their house in Serbia, in a stroller next to them.

“I have a baby,” said Rachel: “I don't have to worry about being annoying here.”

A number of meters away were Andrew Matthews and Danny Sincic, long-time Melbourniere and participants, however the first-time visitors to the party court enjoyed an gingerbier and an IPA.

“I've never been to something like that,” said Sincic. “It feels a bit more social than having to sit in the stadium without talking.”

“I don't know how the players feel, but it's good for us,” said Matthews.

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The players are mainly okay. At this point, that it looks like a rugby match if you play tennis in Melbourne Park – especially when you play an Aussie. Chairman and stadium officials will try to maintain the hometown loyal in line, but they don't try.

After all, the tournament of his further moments would rob, like Danielle Collins' second round victory against home lovers of Destane Aiava. After Collins sounded greater than two hours of harassment by the Australian fans, Collins blew the gang on the gang and thanked them of their interview on the pitch because she had helped her to land a “big fat pay check”.

Djokovic, who often trolls than some other person, gave Collins his full support.

“Great fan of Danielle Collins,” he said on Thursday evening after Collins' interview. “We should try to attach and convey them more with younger people. I would like to see a bit of more entertainment. “

He has thoughts, including dancers on the square during the change or a version of a Super Bowl half-time show in the middle of the game. Coco Gauff points out that it doesn't really work in a sport with a minute. Perhaps it was already found somewhere in Melbourne on a whiteboard.