November 21, 1905: The 1st Australian Open

Rodney Heath

November 21, 1905: The 1st Australian Open is held, at the Warehouseman's Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Victoria. Rodney Heath was the 1st winner. (The venue is now named the Albert Cricket Ground.)

Rodney Wilfred Heath was born on June 15, 1884 in Melbourne. He won this tournament again in 1911. In 1915, he left his home country to support its overseer, the British Empire, in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I. In 1916, Major Rodney Heath crashed in a snowstorm en route from England to France. He survived, and survived the war, but died of stomach cancer in Melbourne in 1936, only 52 years old.

In 1908, American Fred Alexander became the 1st non-Australian winner. In 1922, women competed for the 1st time, and Australian Margaret Molesworth won. In 1935, Dorothy Round of England was the 1st non-Australian to win women's singles. In 1938, Dorothy Cheney became the 1st American woman to win.

Margaret Molesworth

Because of the great distance from Australia to the other major tennis-playing nations of the world, it became difficult to travel there, and so, from 1905 to 1976, only 12 men from outside Australia and New Zealand won men's singles; and from 1922 to 1978, only 10 women from outside Australia won. But it also worked the other way around: The distance made it harder for Australians to win the other majors: Wimbledon and the French and U.S. Opens.

This made winning the "Grand Slam" -- all 4 majors in the same calendar year -- difficult. Only 2 men have done it: Don Budge did it in 1938, and Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969. And only 3 women have done it, the 1st 2 being Australians: Maureen Connolly in 1953, Margaret Court in 1970, and Steffi Graf in 1988.

However, Australians winning on their home court have been rare since. No Australian man has won it since Mark Edmonson in 1976. After Chris O'Neil won women's singles in 1978, no Aussie woman won again until 2022, when Ashleigh Barty did it.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia has won the most men's singles titles, 9 from 2008 to 2021. (UPDATE: He won a 10th in 2023.) He surpassed Australian Roy Emerson, who won 6 from 1961 to 1967. Serena Williams won it 7 times starting in 2003. The most recent time, in 2017, she was 1 month pregnant, and didn't know it. But Margaret Smith Court, of Australia, still leads all winners, regardless of gender or country, with 11, from 1960 to 1973.

The tournament was not held in 1916, 1917 and 1918, due to World War I. It was not held from 1941 to 1945, due to World War II. Other than that, it has been held every year since.

Unlike the other major or "Grand Slam" events, the Australian Open has rotated playing sites, until 1972, when Koolong Park in Melbourne became the regular venue. In 1988, new venues were built at Melbourne Park, named for Australia's greatest players of each gender: The Rod Laver Arena and the Margaret Court Arena. Of course, given what the playing surface is called, the building could have been called the Margaret Smith Court.

Margaret Court Arena (foreground)

and Rod Laver Arena (background)

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November 21, 1905 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. Basketball barely existed. And hockey was all-amateur at this point. So there were no scores on this historic day.