The term Grand Slam was first employed by New York journalist John Kieran to describe Australian Jack Crawford's attempts in 1933 to capture all four titles. However, the Grand Slam was actually achieved first in 1938 by American Donald Budge.

Great Britain's Fred Perry was the first player to have won all four tournaments, but not in a calendar year. He held the US singles title in 1933, 1934 and 1936, and the Wimbledon title in 1934, 1935 and 1936. He claimed the Australian title in 1934 and the French title in 1935.

Since Donald Budge, four players have captured the Grand Slam: Maureen Connolly (1953), Rod Laver as an amateur (1962) and as a professional (1969), Margaret Court (1971) and Steffi Graf (1988).

The tournament was first played in 1905 as The Australasian Championships, became the Australian Championships in 1927 and the Australian Open in 1969. Since 1905, The Championships have been staged at six different venues as follows: Melbourne [46 times], Sydney [17 times] Adelaide [14 times], Brisbane [eight times], Perth [three times] and New Zealand [twice] in 1906 & 1912.

In 1972, it was decided to stage the Tournament in the one city each year, as opposed to visiting various states across the nation, and the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club was selected due to Melbourne attracting the biggest patronage.

Melbourne Park (formerly Flinders Park) was constructed in time for the 1988 Open to meet the demands of the evolving tournament that had outgrown Kooyong's capacity. The move to Flinders Park was an immediate success, with a 90 per cent increase in attendance in 1988 (266,436) on the previous year at Kooyong (140,000).

Rhys Gemmell (1921 men's singles champion) is the only Australian-born champion not to have played Davis Cup for his country

The 1998 Australian Open saw two of the five senior titles won by wildcards - Martina Hingis / Mirjana Lucic in the women's doubles and Justin Gimelstob / Venus Williams in the mixed doubles

Gerald Patterson saved four match points at 12-13 and one at 15-16 in fourth set before beating John Hawkes in final

Dinny Pails saved a match point at 5-6 in fifth set against John Bromwich in finals

Mary Carter survived a match point in defeating Thelma Long in final Rod Laver at 4-5 in fourth set saved a match point to defeat Neale Fraser in final

John Newcombe defeated Tony Roche in semifinal after Roche held two match points at 5-2 and one more at 8-7; Newcombe defeated Jimmy Connors in the final

Johan Kriek survived match point in semifinal against Paul McNamee at 3-5 in fifth set before going on to defeat Steve Denton in final

Stefan Edberg saved two match points in the fourth round against Wally Masur before defeating Mats Wilander in final

Monica Seles defeated Mary Joe Fernandez in semifinal after saving a match point at 5-6 30-40 in third set; Seles defeated Jana Novotna in the final

Jennifer Capriati saved three match points in the final against Martina Hingis and then went on to claim the women's singles title

In 1970 Dennis Ralston d. John Newcombe in QF 19-17 20-18 4-6 6-3 in a match lasting 281 minutes Duration: 311 minutes: Boris Becker d. Omar Camporese in 3R 7-6 7-6 0-6 4-6 23-21 in 1991

In 1990 Pieter Aldrich / Danie Visser d. Scott Davis / Robert Van't Hof 6-4 4-6 7-6 4-6 23-21, the deciding set lasting 173 minutes

Women: Margaret Molesworth (1922), Daphne Akhurst (1926, 1928), Coral Buttsworth (1932), Joan Hartigan (1934, 1936), Dorothy Bundy (1938), Emily Westacott (1939), Nancye Bolton (1946, 1947, 1948, 1951), Maureen Connolly (153), Thelma Long (1954), Shirley Fry (1957), Angela Mortimer (1958), Mary Carter-Reitano (1959), Margaret Court (1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1973), Nancy Richey (1967), Billie Jean King (1968), Virginia Wade (1972), Evonne Goolagong Cawley (1975, 1976, Dec. 1977), Chris O'Neil (1978), Steffi Graf (1988, 1989, 1994), Martina Hingis (1997), Lindsay Davenport (2000)

Women: Margaret Molesworth 1923

Women: Dorothy Round 1935 (Melbourne)