aussie open??

[grizzly4life]

what year (approx.) did all the top men's players start playing aussie open?

and should guys like borg, connors, mcenroe (and maybe others) get some bump-up in grand slam wins when comparing career against other players? i don't mean they'd get any real credit. just say "oh, borg won X grand slams, when most players only played 3 grand slams. so that's like 1.333X grand slams in today's game"

just a thought!... like everyone, i seem to be obsessed by borg's greatness. i'd say only tennis player that's an icon.

 

[Capt. Willie]

I would say 1983 for all the top players. Around 1977 you can clearly see more foreign players competing. If you look at the list of finalists before the 1977 time frame it is overwhelmingly Australians. From 1977 on you start seeing the tournament being won by non-Australians.

 

[crabgrass]

1983 is correct, i recall lendl,wilander and mcenroe all in the semis that year,
in '81 and '82 the best they could offer were johan kriek versus steve denton finals...occasionally in the 70s you'd have 1 or 2 of the top guys competing like connors and vilas...back in the 60s early 70s it probably wasnt too big of a deal because the bulk of the top guys were mostly aussies anyway.

 

[timnz]

1983 Definitely

1983 you had Lendl, Wilander, McEnroe in the field. It got very good from then on.

Basically 1970, 1972 to 1982 were weak years in terms of the depth of the field. (Though 1975 had a Connors/Newcombe final).

1969 and 1971 were very strong years (Laver and Rosewall wins respectively).

1968 back it was amateur (though that doesn't mean weak).

 

[jean pierre]

In the 70's, Borg and Connors didn't go to Australian Open, but there was a lot of great specialists of grass, like Arthur Ashe, Tony Roche, Peter McNamara, Chris Lewis (finalist in Wimbledon), Edmondson (1/2 finalist in Wimbledon), Amaya (5 sets against Borg in Wimbledon) Sadri ... It was a period where there was a lot of players who played very good only on grass. It's not the same today : every players have the same game, and grass or clay, it's the same thing.

 

[crabgrass]

In the 70's, Borg and Connors didn't go to Australian Open, but there was a lot of great specialists of grass, like Arthur Ashe, Tony Roche, Peter McNamara, Chris Lewis (finalist in Wimbledon), Edmondson (1/2 finalist in Wimbledon), Amaya (5 sets against Borg in Wimbledon) Sadri ... It was a period where there was a lot of players who played very good only on grass. It's not the same today : every players have the same game, and grass or clay, it's the same thing.

connors won the australian open in '74 and was runner up the following year to newcombe...i think borg played at kooyong only once.

 

[d-quik]

i'd say it was 1982.68 was the exact year, time