In what month does the Australian Open typically begin?

The Australian Open typically begins in January. It is traditionally the first of tennis’s four Grand Slam tournaments, played during the Australian summer over roughly two weeks.

The event is now staged at Melbourne Park in Melbourne and usually starts around the middle of January. Its schedule was not always so consistent: early championships were held in various months and cities, while tournaments in the early 1980s were played in December. Organisers shifted the event back to mid-January for 1987.

There have been exceptions. The 2021 tournament was postponed to February because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the competition’s early history included November, December and August editions. Those unusual dates do not change January as the standard modern answer.

The championship began in 1905 as the Australasian Championships, became the Australian Championships in 1927 and adopted the Australian Open name in 1969. Since 1988, it has been played at Melbourne Park on hard courts.