Final wrap-up 2009 Australian Open

Each year Tennis Australia and IBM strive to improve the Australian Open and the experience of all involved including the fans, the players, the officials and the media. This year was no different with record numbers, world class tennis and a bigger and better tennis experience for all.

For the tenth consecutive year the Australian Open has attracted more than half a million patrons with an official tournament attendance of 603,160 in 2009 and the highest ever day/night attendance in Grand Slam history recorded three times during the first week. A new record of 66,018 attended on Saturday 24 January.

A highlight of the tournament however was the star-studded men's and women's singles draw which included eight men's Grand Slam champions and six women's Grand Slam champions. Reigning supreme at the tournament was American Serena Williams who won her fourth Australian Open title, and Rafael Nadal who battled it out with World No.2 Roger Federer for the first Grand Slam title of the year.

See how IBM helped these players and others in the competition improve their game

Australian Open 2009 also saw superb TV audience figures, with 2.315 million viewers across the five major metropolitan markets tuning into Channel 7´s coverage of the tournament on the second Tuesday night.

See how IBM help Channel 7 and other media broadcasters deliver their message to the world

Those fans who couldn´t get along in person made sure they still kept in touch through the official website www.australianopen.com powered by IBM. This was highlighted at the close of play on Day 13, with 7.6 million unique users already having visited the official Australian Open website, up by one million on last year´s figures for the same time.

Learn more about the IBM innovations which helped improve the fan experience for all, whether fans attended in person or on-line

Favourite player profiles among the fans on www.australianopen.com saw world No.1 Rafael Nadal and this year´s women´s champion Serena Williams top the poll ahead of Roger Federer and Dinara Safina. Andy Roddick lead the men´s competition for aces served at 87, with Serena Williams topping the women´s at 42.

The fastest serves of the tournament were recorded by Australia´s Sam Groth (230km/h) while Sabine Lisicki topped the women´s fastest serves (196km/h). Helping the players serve were the racquet stringers who strung more than 3,400 racquets using over 40 km worth of string, with the fastest racquet strung in just 14 minutes.

Learn more about the speed of serve radar & IBM scoring solutions here

And making it all happen behind the scenes were over 4,500 members of staff, including 337 Ball-kids, 365 umpires, 65 court services and operations staff, 80 retail staff and 55 statisticians.

See how IBM helps both officials & staff to ensure the tournament is a success

If you would like to learn further about the IBM products and solutions provided at the Australian Open, click here.