16 Fun Facts About The Australian Open

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The Australian Open holds the record for the highest attendance of any tennis tournament ever staged with 812,174 people attending the 2020 edition. And here are some more quick fun facts:

  1. Novak Djokovic holds the record for the most Men’s Singles titles with 10 wins
  2. Margaret Court holds the record for the most Women’s Singles Titles with 11 wins
  3. The Australian Open was the last of the four majors opened to professionals in 1969
  4. Out of the four Grand Slams, Melbourne Park (Australian Open Venue) is the only venue to have three stadium courts covered by a retractable roof
  5. After winning both his Australian Open Singles titles Jim Courier jumped into the Yarra River for a swim
  6. The Australian Open was a Grass Court Event until 1988
  7. Every year the ball kids who work at the AO are made up of a small contingent of overseas ball kids – 20 from Korea, 6 from China, 10 from India and 2 from France
  8. The Australian Open is shown live in more than 220 Countries and Territories around the world
  9. The Australian Open stringers restring over 5000 racquets throughout the tournament using more than 60km’s of string
  10. The highest single-day attendance at the Australian Open is 93,709 at the 2020 edition
  11. Close to 50,000 Tennis Balls are used during the tournament
  12. Since 1905 the Australian Open has been staged in January, March, August and December with the Ja middle of January start time being in place since 1977
  13. Kia is the longest-running sponsor of the Australian Open beginning it’s deal in 2002 with the current deal set to expire in 2023
  14. The revenue generated from the Australian Open is over $330million
  15. The last Australian female to win the Women’s Singles Title at the Australian Open was Christine O’Neil in 1978
  16. The last Australian male to win the Men’s Singles Title at the Australian Open was Mark Edmonson in 1976

RIP Annie Wersching

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Actress Annie Wersching, best known for her roles in the television shows 24, Bosch, Timeless and more recently in Star Trek : Picard, died of cancer early yesterday. She was 45. Wersching continued to shoot even after her 2020 diagnosis, with prominent roles in Star Trek: Picard as the Borg queen in Season 2, and The Rookie. She also voiced Tess in the popular The Last Of Us video game, which was adapted into a TV series by HBO.

Wersching was born and raised in St. Louis by parents Sandy and Frank. Wersching began her acting career with a guest appearance on the show Star Trek: Enterprise and moved on to guest starring roles on such shows as Charmed, Killer Instinct, Supernatural and Cold Case. From March to November 2007, she played the recurring role of Amelia Joffe on the ABC soap opera General Hospital. She has also worked in theaters such as Victory Gardens, Marriott Lincolnshire, and the Utah Shakespearean Festival. She went on to star as Renee Walker in Seasons 7 and 8 of 24. After her two-season stint in 24, Wersching guest starred on various shows, including CSI, NCIS, Rizzoli & Isles, Hawaii Five-0, Body of Proof, Dallas,  Revolution, Castle, Blue Bloods, The Vampire Diaries and Touch.

She played a great villain in the short lived Timeless before she was part of 3 seasons of the superhero series The Runaways. In December 2012, it was revealed that in the PlayStation 3 exclusive The Last of Us, Wersching was the voice and motion-capture actor of the character Tess. Wersching was diagnosed with an unspecified cancer in 2020, though she continued to act afterward. One of her final roles was in Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard exactly two decades after she made her screen acting debut in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. She played a Borg Queen in an alternate timeline who is captured. Wersching is survived by her husband and children Freddie, 12; Ozzie, and Archie, 4.