What was the Australian Open called immediately before adopting its current name in 1969?

What was the Australian Open called immediately before adopting its current name in 1969? Australian Championships.

The tournament was known as the Australian Championships from 1927 through 1968, immediately before the name Australian Open was introduced for the 1969 edition. That change coincided with the start of the Open Era, when professional players became eligible to compete alongside amateurs in major tournaments.

Before 1927, the event had been called the Australasian Championships, a name reflecting its original scope across Australia and New Zealand. The 1969 renaming therefore marked both a branding change and a new phase in professional tennis history, rather than the tournament’s creation.

The name can cause confusion because the event’s modern identity is often used retrospectively for every edition. Historically, however, the labels distinguish three periods: Australasian Championships from 1905 to 1926, Australian Championships from 1927 to 1968, and Australian Open from 1969 onward. The first Australian Open was staged in Brisbane, and Rod Laver won the men’s singles title during the tournament’s inaugural Open Era edition.