The Australian Open switched from grass to hard courts in 1988. The change happened when the tournament moved from Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club to the newly built Flinders Park, now Melbourne Park, in Melbourne.
The 1988 edition used a cushioned hard court called Rebound Ace. The move provided a larger, more modern venue and helped the tournament accommodate bigger crowds and expanded player fields. It also marked the first Australian Open staged at Flinders Park.
The tournament had been played on grass until 1987, so 1988 is the key transition year. This is sometimes confused with later surface changes: Rebound Ace was replaced by Plexicushion in 2008, and the tournament adopted GreenSet courts in 2019. Those were changes between hard-court systems, not a return from grass or the original surface switch.