Tennis fans faced mammoth queues to enter Melbourne Park on Sunday, as more than 73,000 people descended on the precinct for the first day of this year’s Australian Open.
Lines to enter the grounds peaked from late morning until after lunchtime, with estimated wait times creeping over an hour.
Fans wait in long queues outside the Grand Slam Oval entrance on Sunday.Credit: Chris Hopkins
At the Grand Slam Oval entrance shortly after midday, two separate lines snaked around two different corners, with attendees seemingly confused about which direction they should head. The Garden Square entrance at the other end of the precinct also had long lines shortly before play commenced.
The Open announced a day session record crowd of 73,235. The previous record was less than 70,000 and set in 2019 in the middle of the tournament.
Arron Hall, who travelled to the tournament from Sydney, said the wait to enter when he arrived at about 12.30pm was over an hour.
“It is to be expected … when you come to a live sports event. The first day, on a Sunday, with weather like this,” Hall said, as he waited in another queue to grab seats at one of the courts.
He said that plenty of people around him were growing frustrated with the staff, and that some were requesting refunds because they’d missed the beginning of play.
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“I made a joke to this lady, saying, ‘It’s nothing on Wimbledon’. She’s like, ‘I’ve been to Wimbledon, and it’s not this bad!’” Hall said.
Another couple, who declined to give their names, said they had been waiting for 45 minutes when they were halfway through the Olympic Boulevard queue shortly after midday.
“It’s not good enough … considering the price of the ticket,” one of them said. “[Tennis Australia] will probably need to have a crisis management meeting after this … they can’t do this for 14 days.”
At a press conference before play commenced on Sunday morning, tournament director Craig Tiley announced that ground pass sales for the day had officially been halted – signalling the busy day that was to come.