Australian Tennis Open 2008 Venue Guide

From Hugh Westbrook in Melbourne: Melbourne Park hosts the first Grand Slam of 2001, and the growth of the venue has coincided with the increased prestige of the tournament.

A Multi-functional Arena: The 10,800-capacity Vodafone Arena is open for business, and with the existing Rod Laver Arena means the tournament will now utilise two show courts with retractable roofs.

Hail a Water Taxi: The circular Garden Square will be a focal point during the tournament, people will congregate to watch the action on a giant screen, while others can view bronze sculptures of the members of Australia's Tennis Hall of Fame.

2007 Australian Open - January 2007

New technology used in line-calling

This was the first time that the tournament used the Hawk-Eye system in an official line-calling capacity, as an auxiliary to the human line judges. Players were given the opportunity to challenge a human line call if they believed it to be incorrect, by having Hawk-Eye confirm or overrule the original call. The system was installed on only one court being used for the tournament, in the Rod Laver Arena.

At the beginning of a set, the players were each given the opportunity to incorrectly challenge a maximum of two line calls during the set. A player who still had some incorrect challenges remaining was allowed to make an unlimited number of correct challenges, but when a player had no incorrect challenges remaining, his or her opportunity to challenge line calls was lost. Players received an extra incorrect challenge during a tiebreak. The players regained both challenges at the beginning of each set and also after every 12 games in the final deciding set. Unused challenges did not carry over when this happened.