\u201cIt feels like a lifetime ago that I coined the phrase the \u2018Happy Slam\u2019 for the Australian Open, and it still makes me smile when I think about all the moments I\u2019ve had here\u201d Roger Federer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve experienced so many emotions on Rod Laver Arena \u2026 the joy of lifting \u2018Norman\u2019 six times, the honour of playing in front of Rod Laver himself, the challenge of competing against my biggest rivals, and always the overwhelming love and support of the Australian fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing back to win the AO in 2017 is one of my most treasured Grand Slam memories and backing it up to win in 2018 was another dream come true in Melbourne. I can\u2019t wait to come down under again to the AO and create more fantastic moments with all the Aussie fans.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m thrilled we\u2019re introducing this very special AO Opening Ceremony,\u201d Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the AO has a reputation for innovation and is renowned for pushing the boundaries, we are also the custodians of a proud 120-year history filled with some of the sport\u2019s greatest champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis inaugural Opening Ceremony will mark the start of a new tennis season in spectacular fashion. I can\u2019t wait to see Roger back on Rod Laver Arena, along with other greats of the game Andre, Pat and Lleyton. And I know fans across Australia will be just as excited to share this moment with him.”<\/p>\n
Tickets for AO Opening Ceremony start at $149 and go on sale at 12.00 noon AEDT today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt feels like a lifetime ago that I coined the phrase the \u2018Happy Slam\u2019 for the Australian Open,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-339320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}