Long queues for fans at Melbourne Park on day one

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.

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.

Queues were reportedly shorter at the Birrarung Marr Entrance, which is at the western side of the precinct and more removed from the other two gates.

A spokesperson from Tennis Australia said that there were some entry delays from the eastern end of the precinct on Sunday morning – but that pressure eased in the afternoon.

“Our customer service team have been assisting fans on arrival … Where appropriate, they’ve been directed to alternate entrances,” the spokesperson said.

Attendees are encouraged to pre-buy tickets and sign up for the “express entry” queue to ease congestion, they said.

In 2025, a record-breaking 1.2 million people attended Melbourne Park across the three weeks of the tournament. Opening week this year brought in 218,000 people before the main draw even began.

English tennis fan Alex Burton said that he arrived at Melbourne Park when the gates opened at 9:30am to try to skip the rush. He recommended that others do the same, if possible.

“At that point it was working fine … [but] if you’ve got kids, you’ve got family, they’re always going to hold things up,” Burton said.

By the early afternoon on Sunday, queues to enter the precinct had finally subsided. Those arriving after lunch were able to scan their tickets with few issues. But inside Melbourne Park, many faced more waits for food, drinks, merch and to snag a seat at the courts.

Lines for the ground-pass accessible John Cain Arena and Kia Arena were especially long – as was the wait to try US burger chain Shake Shack’s first foray into the Australian market.

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