Free Tennis Day Leaderboard is announced!

Due to some amazing efforts by towns around Australia towns have been awarded a player in the main draw of the Australian Open. Make sure you check out below to see who your town is cheering for!

Town Leaderboard Terms & Conditions

• The higher ranked towns secure the higher ranked player for the Australian Open 2016.
• The winning town has the choice to select the No.1 male or female player for their town to support. Kendall chose Novak Djokovic.
• The next highest scoring towns on the AOTB town leader board will be alternatively matched to male/female players.
• The top 256 tennis towns in Australia will be match with a player in the main singles draw, effectively becoming an official cheer squad for ‘their’ player at Australian Open 2016 [128 men and 128 women].
• The competition closes on AEST at 5pm on Friday 6 December.

Women’s

• There are a total of 108 direct acceptances in to the women’s single draw, based on the player rankings from the 8 December.
• Wild cards (up to 8) – the players granted wild cards will be allocated when the wild cards are announced.  Town representatives will be notified accordingly.
• Qualifiers (12) – The qualifiers will be allocated their towns once the qualifiers are confirmed.  Town reps will be notified accordingly.

Men’s

• There are a total of 104 direct acceptances in to the Men’s singles draw , based on the player rankings from the 8 December.
• Wild cards (up to 8) – the players granted wild cards will be allocated when the wild cards are announced.  Town representatives will be notified accordingly.
• Qualifiers (16) – The qualifiers will be allocated their towns once the qualifiers are confirmed.  Town reps will be notified accordingly.

Wildcards and Qualifiers

• ATP has 104 direct entries and WTA has 108 direct entries.
• Each withdrawal is replaced with next alternate.
• Protected rankings: the current ranked player is always first followed by the players on a protected ranking. When 2 or more players are on the same protected ranking they will be listed in last name alphabetical.
• Wildcards will be announced prior to qualifying beginning on Wednesday 13 January. They will be listed in ATP/WTA ranking order. These will be listed below qualifiers.

Withdrawals

• If there are any player withdrawals the aligned/allocated town will be allocated a replacement player, generally next in line in rankings, depending on the time of replacement.
• The Tennis team will notify the club/town representative notifying them of the lucky loser.
• These replacement players are identified with * after their last name in the leaderboard.

Prizes for towns

Great rewards to be won!

The are 16 rewards up for grabs to the Clubs whose town are represented by the 2016 Australian Open:

• The men’s and women’s Champions will receive a trophy tour event arranged by TA
• The losing men’s and women’s finalists will each receive a $1000 voucher;
• The losing four men’s and women’s semi-finalists will each receive a $500 voucher; and
• The losing eight men’s and women’s quarter-finalists will each receive a $250 voucher

Town Engagement

The below are some suggestions for your club or community:

Are you and your club planning on attending the Australian Open 2016 ?

Email [email protected] with the subject “Free Tennis Days clubs attending AO”

Online: Always hastag #AusOpen 

Place information about cheering for your player on your website, e-newsletter, and social media (Facebook, twitter, instagram) etc. e.g.:

• Consider sending good luck messages, , tweets to your player
• Use your players handle in social media messages to interact with your player. To find out their handle eg. @rogerfederer visit https://twitter.com/AustralianOpen/lists/australian-open-players
• Council involvement: This is an opportunity to engage the local Council and get the entire town involved
• Parties: Consider having a party at your club or in your community when your player is playing using social media to show your support
• Community landmarks: Promote in prominent locations within the town, i.e. Warrnambool had ‘Warrnambool is cheering for Sharapova’ in led light 24/7 on the town theatre in the main street of Warrnambool or Watervale adding marketing collateral to their town sign in 2014

The opportunities are endless on how you can promote, leverage and maximise your club and community prior, during and after the Australian Open.

Informing the Free Tennis Day Team

Please keep us posted on all your activities and send through images of high resolution (good quality) to [email protected]

Any questions please email us at [email protected] or call 1800 PLAY TENNIS