2013 AAMI Classic – Draw
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The Kooyong Classic is a professional tennis
exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...
singles-only tournament, played on outdoor
hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as Asphalt concrete, asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resin ...
s. It is held annually in January, right before the
Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
, at the
Kooyong Stadium Kooyong Stadium, at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, is an Australian tennis venue, located in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak, adjacent to the namesake suburb of Kooyong. The stadium was built in 1927, and has undergone several renovations. I ...
in Kooyong,
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, Australia. Eight invited players participate in the tournament in a promotion/relegation format, playing three matches each over four days to determine the standings from the first place (won all three matches) to the eighth (lost all three matches). Aside from the competition, exhibition matches also take place during the tournament.


Competition format

The Kooyong Classic draw includes eight invited
Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour and the ATP Challenger Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to p ...
(ATP) players, seeded according to the
ATP rankings The PIF ATP Rankings (previously known as the Pepperstone ATP Rankings) are the merit-based method used by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for determining the qualification for entry as well as the seeding of players in all single ...
of the week preceding the tournament. Four first round matches are played, after which the four winners advance to the semifinals, while the four losers are relegated to a
play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...
draw. The two semifinals of the main draw and of the play-off draw are then played, setting four new matches : the main draw final, to decide of the champion and of the runner-up, the main draw consolation match, to decide of the third and fourth places, the play-off draw final, to decide of the fifth and sixth places, and the play-off draw consolation match, to decide of the seventh and eighth places. The tournament takes place over four days, with the four first round matches taking place on the first day, the two first round matches of the play-off draw, and one semifinal of the main draw taking place on the second day, the final and the consolation match of the play-off draw, and the second semifinal of the main draw taking place on the third day, and the final and the consolation match of the main draw taking place on the fourth and last day. Unlike in official tournaments, players retiring during or withdrawing before a match are not automatically eliminated from the tournament, and can still participate to the play-offs or the consolation match –as in the 2008 event, when
Nikolay Davydenko Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko ( ; born 2 June 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 in November 2006. Davydenko's best result in a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tournam ...
withdrew due to fatigue before his play-off draw first round match against
Brydan Klein Brydan Klein (born 31 December 1989) is an Australian-born British professional tennis player. As a junior, Klein won the 2007 Australian Open and reached a career-high top five in the ITF junior rankings. However, Klein has struggled to make ...
, but went on to play and win the play-off draw consolation match against
Ivan Ljubičić Ivan Ljubičić (; born 19 March 1979) is a Croatian former professional tennis player, coach and Tennis TV commentator. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 3 singles ranking on 1 May 2006. His career high ...
. Players who decide to withdraw from the competition due to injury are replaced by an
alternate Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an alternative to mainstream superh ...
for the play-offs or the consolation match –as in the 2006 edition, when
David Nalbandian David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He reached his highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006, during a career that spanned from 2000 to 2013. Nalbandian was runner-up in ...
's withdrawal allowed alternate
Max Mirnyi Maksim Mikalaevich "Max" Mirnyi (born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player. Mirnyi became a doubles specialist following his singles career, in which he reached a career-high of World No. 18 (August 2003) and finished ...
to enter the draw. All matches are played in a best-of-three sets with tie-break format. The Kooyong Classic taking place the week before the first Grand Slam of the regular season, the Australian Open, exhibition matches are frequently organised by the event, outside of the competition, to allow top players lacking practice to play matches before the Open.


History

The first Kooyong exhibition tournament took place in 1988, the year the Australian Open moved from the courts of the
Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club Kooyong Stadium, at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, is an Australian tennis venue, located in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak, adjacent to the namesake suburb of Kooyong. The stadium was built in 1927, and has undergone several renovations. It ...
, which had become too small to host the event, to the newly built National Tennis Centre at Flinders Park (which would become known as Melbourne Park in 1996). Initiated by Colin Stubs, still the director of the tournament in 2009, the first ''Kooyong Invitational'' was created to continue the tradition of having a world-class tennis tournament at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club. Set in December 1988, to allow participants to prepare for the
1989 Australian Open The 1989 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on Hardcourt, outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park, Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria (state), Victoria in Australia. It was the 77th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 16 ...
, and played on the club's traditional
grass court A grass court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament. While grass courts are more tra ...
s, the sixteen-men event comprised fifteen Australian players and
Goran Ivanišević Goran Ivanišević (; born 13 September 1971) is a Croatian former professional tennis player and current coach. He was ranked world No. 2 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in July 1994. Ivanišević won 22 ATP To ...
from
Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
, and eventually saw the victory of
1988 Australian Open The 1988 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 76th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 11 through 24 January 1988 and was the first ...
runner-up
Pat Cash Patrick Hart Cash (born 27 May 1965) is an Australian former professional tennis player and coach. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 4 in May 1988 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 6 in August 1988. Upo ...
over countryman
Wally Masur Wally Masur (; born 13 May 1963) is a tennis coach, television commentator, and former professional tennis player from Sydney, Australia. He reached the semifinals of the 1987 Australian Open and the 1993 US Open, achieving a career-high sing ...
in the final. As it started a sponsoring partnership with Colonial Mutual in 1990, the tournament (known as ''Colonial Mutual Classic'' from 1990 to 1992, then ''Colonial Classic'' from 1993 to 2001) changed its competition format to an eight-men
round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...
, with each player of the two four-men groups playing two round robin games, and a third match for the standings. The tournament's success increased during the Colonial-sponsored years, and started to attract more and more international players, outside of the Australian constituency, as it became the most important warm-up event to the first Grand Slam of the season –the only one to be held in the same city as the Open, in
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
. The first non-Australian champion was crowned in 1991, when Australian Open quarterfinalist
Goran Prpić Goran Prpić (; born 4 May 1964) is a Croatian tennis coach and former professional tennis player, who played for SFR Yugoslavia and Croatia. Biography Prpić was born in Zagreb, at the time in SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia. He turned professional ...
from
Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
defeated
Richard Fromberg Richard James Fromberg (born 28 April 1970) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. Tennis career Fromberg began playing tennis at the age of 10. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.World No. 1
Thomas Muster Thomas Muster (born 2 October 1967) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Muster ...
from Austria edging Russian Alexander Volkov. The 1993 Kooyong tournament also included for the first time an eight-players women's event, running concurrently with the men's. The first women's ''Colonial Mutual Classic'' featured an all-Australian final, where 1992 Barcelona Olympics doubles bronze medalist
Rachel McQuillan Rachel McQuillan (born 2 December 1971) is a retired tennis player from Australia. She was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.Nicole Provis Nicole Bradtke (née Provis) (born 22 September 1969) is a retired professional tennis player from Australia. Bradtke won three singles and nine doubles titles on the WTA Tour. She reached the semifinals of the 1988 French Open, and won a bron ...
in three sets. The next year, the ''Colonial Classic'' was held in mid-January one, just before the
1995 Australian Open The 1995 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on Hardcourt, outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park, Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria (state), Victoria in Australia. It was the 83rd edition of the Australian Open and was held from 16 ...
, and switched from grass to hard courts, to make the playing conditions closer to that of the
Rebound Ace Rebound Ace is a cushioned tennis hardcourt composed of polyurethane rubber, fiberglass, and other materials on top of an asphalt or reinforced concrete base. It is manufactured and sold by California Products Corporation's Sports Surfaces divisio ...
-surfaced Grand Slam tournament. The new-style ''Colonial Classic'' (back to being a men's only tournament) saw American champions like
Pete Sampras Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the A ...
,
Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 ...
and
Michael Chang Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked world No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1996. Chang is the youngest man in history to win a singl ...
starting to compete, with the latter starting a series of three victories at the event from 1995 to 1997. Eventual 2003 Wimbledon Championships runner-up
Mark Philippoussis Mark Anthony Philippoussis (born 7 November 1976) is an Australian tennis coach, commentator and former professional tennis player of Greek and Italian descent. Philippoussis' greatest achievements are winning two Davis Cup titles with Austra ...
from Australia won the last edition played in a round-robin format in
1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
, as the 1999 event was the first played under the current promotion/relegation system, with Swede
Thomas Enqvist Thomas Karl Johan Enqvist (born 13 March 1974) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached the final of the 1999 Australian Open and won a total of 19 singles titles, including three Masters titles. He has a career high ATP worl ...
coming off as the winner. Agassi became the most successful player at the event after his 1998 runner-up finish, reaching five more finals consecutively from 2000 to 2004 (beating Philippoussis in
2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
,
Yevgeny Kafelnikov Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov ( rus, Евгений Александрович Кафельников, , jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ˈkafʲɪlʲnʲɪkəf, a=Ru-Yevgeny-Kafelnikov.ogg; born 18 February 1974) is a Russian former professional tennis p ...
in
2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...
and
Sébastien Grosjean Sébastien René Grosjean (; born 29 May 1978) is a French tennis coach and a former professional player. Grosjean reached the semifinals at the 2001 Australian and French Opens, and at Wimbledon in 2003 and 2004. He finished eight consecutive ...
in
2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...
).
Commonwealth Bank The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), also known as Commonwealth Bank or simply CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of fi ...
took over the sponsorship of the tournament from 2002 to 2004, transforming the ''Colonial Classic'' into the ''Commonwealth Bank International'', before the event went sponsorless in
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
, only known as the ''Kooyong Classic'', as World No. 1
Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...
from Switzerland collected his first title in Kooyong.
AAMI Australian Associated Motor Insurers Limited (commonly referred to as AAMI) is an Australian general insurance provider offering car, home, CTP and business insurance. AAMI has vehicle assessment centres in Victoria, New South Wales, Queenslan ...
picked up the event's sponsorship in 2006 for a three-years contract, renewed in 2009 -starting the tournament's run as the ''AAMI Classic''. 2003 US Open champion
Andy Roddick Andrew Stephen Roddick (born August 30, 1982) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 13 weeks, including as the year-end No. 1 in ...
tied countrymen Chang and Agassi with three titles (
2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...
,
2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
,
2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
),
Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...
won his second title (
2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
),
Fernando Verdasco Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spaniards, Spanish tennis coach and a former professional player. He was ranked world No. 7 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP, achieved in April 2009, and w ...
became the first Spanish champion at the event (
2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
), before 19-year-old
Bernard Tomic Bernard Tomic (; , ; born 21 October 1992) is an Australian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 17 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Tomic has won four singles titles on the ATP To ...
(
2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
) and former World No. 1
Lleyton Hewitt Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) fo ...
(
2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
,
2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
) claimed three consecutive titles for Australia. The arrival of new tune-up events for the Australian Open, like the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in
Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...
or the national year-end championships like the
Masters France The Masters France (sponsored by BNP Paribas) was a professional tennis Exhibition game, exhibition Round-robin tournament, round-robin singles-only tournament, played on indoor hard courts, specifically Plexicushion. It was held in December at th ...
raised questions concerning Kooyong event's future. Different ways to improve the tournament studied by promoter Colin Stubs include lengthening it beyond four days (despite Roddick's withdrawal in 2009, due to the three-match format already being "too taxing" according to the American), reviving the short-lived women's event, or allowing retired players to compete. As a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, the tournament was not held in from 2021 through 2022, before returning from 2023.


Past finals

In men's singles,
Michael Chang Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked world No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1996. Chang is the youngest man in history to win a singl ...
(1995–97),
Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 ...
(2000–01, 2003) and
Andy Roddick Andrew Stephen Roddick (born August 30, 1982) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 13 weeks, including as the year-end No. 1 in ...
(2006–08) co-hold the record for most titles with three victories each. Chang (1995–97) and Roddick (2006–08) share the record for most consecutive titles with three.


Men's singles


Women's singles


See also

*
Australian Open Series The Australian Open Series is a selection of tennis tournaments held annually prior to the start of the Australian Open in Melbourne. In 2023, there are five official Australian Open Series tournaments held across Australia in preparation for the ...


References


External links


Official website
{{Tennis exhibition tournaments Exhibition tennis tournaments Tennis tournaments in Australia Recurring sporting events established in 1988