Anticipation Builds for the 2025 Australian Open, as Rod Laver Area Marks its twenty fifth Anniversary
Rolex Returns to tennis in 2025
Geneva, 11 December 2024 – The 2025 Australian Open, from Sunday 12 to Sunday 26 January, welcomes Rolex’s assist for the worldwide tennis calendar and guarantees charming performances throughout 15 days of motion. As era-defining rivalries and new teaching partnerships play out, Rolex Testimonies Jannik Sinner and Qinwen Zheng will return to Melbourne Park, the scene of their Grand Slam® event breakthroughs. Sinner claimed the primary of his two males’s Grand Slam® singles titles on the 2024 Australian Open earlier than attaining the World No. 1 rating, whereas Zheng reached her first Grand Slam® singles closing on the occasion previous to her gold medal win in Paris final summer season.
Zheng took the tennis world by storm in 2024, together with her performances incomes her a spot on the WTA Finals for the primary time. Subsequent month, she’s going to try to go one higher in Melbourne, competing alongside fellow Rolex Testimonies Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens and Belinda Bencic, who is ready to return to Grand Slam® competitors for the primary time since changing into a mom. Zheng says:
“The Australian Open will all the time be particular for me as a result of it’s the place I reached my first Grand Slam closing, and it was additionally the primary Grand Slam occasion I ever performed, again in 2022. Every part in Australia appears to go effectively. I like the ambiance at Melbourne Park and Rod Laver watching me on Rod Laver Area in 2024 was an incredible second.”
Rod Laver’s dwelling Grand Slam® event holds a particular place in his coronary heart. The 2025 version marks the twenty fifth anniversary of the Centre Court docket at Melbourne Park being renamed Rod Laver Area, and it’s 65 years because the tennis legend gained his first of 11 Grand Slam® titles on the Australian Championships in 1960. Since then, Laver has witnessed first-hand the evolution of tennis and Rolex’s relationship with the game, which started in 1978 when the Swiss watchmaker partnered The Championships, Wimbledon. Thirty years later, in 2008, Rolex grew to become Official Timekeeper of the Australian Open, and extra just lately strengthened its assist of the ladies’s recreation by partnering the Ladies’s Tennis Affiliation (WTA).
Laver stays the one participant within the skilled period to have gained all 4 Grand Slam® tournaments in the identical yr, a feat he achieved in 1969, having beforehand accomplished in order an newbie in 1962. He says:
“Rolex being a part of the Australian Open is essential for tennis and for our nation on the worldwide stage. It’s a partnership that I’ve seen thrive over a few years. I really feel honoured that Australia has acknowledged my tennis achievements by placing my title on that stunning large stadium. It’s a nice feeling to know that by way of this courtroom, the legacy of my profession continues within the sport in the present day.”
Reigning champion Sinner capped a momentous 2024 by profitable the Nitto ATP Finals and guiding Italy to a second successive Davis Cup victory in November. The 23-year-old can be among the many gamers taking centre stage on Laver’s eponymous courtroom as he goals to breed the precision and composure that enabled him to carry his maiden Grand Slam® trophy. Looking forward to the event, Sinner says:
“Each season has its personal story, and also you by no means know what is going to occur, however for us, it all the time begins in Australia, which I’m very pleased about. I all the time really feel good enjoying at Melbourne Park. I actually love the individuals and the followers – there’s a nice power.”
Becoming a member of Sinner within the males’s singles draw can be four-time Grand Slam® champion Carlos Alcaraz, in search of to turn out to be the youngest participant in historical past to finish the profession Grand Slam®. Taylor Fritz, Stéfanos Tsitsipás, Holger Rune and Ben Shelton are among the many different Rolex Testimonees standing in his path. Getting back from the low season refreshed and able to start their new campaigns, the Australian Open will present a heat and welcoming stage for them to try for Grand Slam® glory. And there’s positive to be one Rolex legend keen to look at their pursuit of excellence and the crowning of champions on his iconic courtroom.
