Australian Open 2023: Courts
Sports · Tennis · Australian Open 2023
Courts
The whole tournament happened at Melbourne Park, on the eastern edge of the city — sixteen championship courts inside one set of gates, from Rod Laver Arena, where all five finals were played, out to the numbered courts that carried the first rounds. The plan below draws every court where it actually sat, to scale, from surveyed footprints — and each one opens to exactly which matches were played on it, in the order they were played, with the time each began wherever the tournament’s own record of it survives.
Rod Laver ArenaMen's FFinalWomen's FFinalMen's Doubles FFinalWomen's Doubles FFinalMixed Doubles FFinal14,82060 matches
Centre court since the precinct opened in 1988, when it was plain “National Tennis Centre at Flinders Park” — the first tennis venue anywhere with a retractable roof, an idea the Victorian premier floated as a compromise between an open-air court and a closed arena. It took Rod Laver’s name in January 2000 and seats 14,820 for tennis. A 2018 upgrade cut the roof’s closing time from thirty minutes to five. In 2023 it staged all five finals, all four singles semi-finals and both doubles finals, and carried 60 main-draw matches — more than any other court.
Novak Djokovic
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Krejčíková / 
Aoyama / 
Elena Rybakina
Hijikata / 
Nys / 
ZielińskiShow 56 earlier matchesHide 56 earlier matches
Stefani / 
Tommy Paul
Chardy / 
Zeballos
Donna Vekić
Holger Rune
Belinda Bencic
Mertens
Niculescu
Jannik Sinner
Lin Zhu
Grigor Dimitrov
Anhelina Kalinina
Tallon Griekspoor
Casper Ruud
Leylah Fernandez
Ons Jabeur
Camila Osorio
Emma Raducanu
Tamara Zidanšek
Jule NiemeierMargaret Court ArenaWomen's Doubles SFSemi-finalMixed Doubles SFSemi-final7,50045 matches
Show Court 1 when the grounds opened in 1988, and Margaret Court Arena since — rebuilt for the 2015 tournament from 6,000 seats to 7,500 and given the fastest retractable roof of its kind, five minutes open to shut. It is the third of Melbourne Park’s roofed courts, which is what makes this the only Grand Slam venue that can put three matches under cover at once, and at 45 matches it carried the heaviest slate of the fortnight outside Rod Laver Arena.
Chan / Show 40 earlier matchesHide 40 earlier matches
Mirza / Bopanna✓
Ostapenko / 
Hernández
Mihalíková / Sasnovich
Olmos
Brkić / 
Escobar
Heliövaara
Márton Fucsovics
Anett Kontaveit
Juan Pablo VarillasJohn Cain Arena10,50033 matches
The People’s Court — the second-largest arena here, opened in 2000 and renamed four times before it settled (Vodafone, Hisense, Melbourne, and since December 2020 John Cain, for the premier who kept the Australian Open in Melbourne). It seats 10,500 for tennis, has its own retractable roof and a velodrome track under the seating, and it is the one show court a ground pass gets you into, which is most of why it sounds the way it does when an Australian is playing.
Kalashnikova / Show 26 earlier matchesHide 26 earlier matches
Göransson / 
OswaldKia Arena5,00036 matches
The newest court on the grounds and the signature piece of a $271.5 million redevelopment stage: a 5,000-seat bowl sunk into the ground between Rod Laver and John Cain arenas, built over the old Eastern Courts 16–23 and opened for the 2022 tournament. A roof structure shades most of the seats without closing over the court, so it plays outdoors in all weather — the largest court here that a rain delay still stops.
Arévalo / Show 33 earlier matchesHide 33 earlier matches
Qureshi
Sutjiadi
Behar
Guarachi1573 Arena3,00024 matches
Show Court 2 by construction, 1573 Arena by contract — named from the 2019 tournament for Guojiao 1573, a baijiu distilled by Luzhou Laojiao, in the first of the show-court sponsorships. It has stood since the grounds opened in 1988 and seats 3,000, open to the sky.
Harris / 
VenusShow 14 earlier matchesHide 14 earlier matches
Court 33,00037 matches
The last of Melbourne Park’s major show courts to be known by a number: opened with the grounds in 1988, 3,000 seats, shaded since 2020, and reachable on a ground pass, which makes it the best value on the site for a seeded first-round match. It took a sponsor’s name three tournaments after this one and is ANZ Arena from 2026. In 2023 it played 37 main-draw matches, more than any other court that carries a number and more than two of the show courts.
Show 33 earlier matchesHide 33 earlier matches
Court 5—15 matches
João SousaShow 7 earlier matchesHide 7 earlier matches
Court 6—17 matches
SherifShow 9 earlier matchesHide 9 earlier matches
Hugo DellienCourt 7—29 matches
Show 23 earlier matchesHide 23 earlier matches
Court 8—24 matches
Show 20 earlier matchesHide 20 earlier matches
KovinićCourt 12—12 matches
Show 4 earlier matchesHide 4 earlier matches
Court 13—13 matches
Show 6 earlier matchesHide 6 earlier matches
Court 14—15 matches
Show 7 earlier matchesHide 7 earlier matches
Court 15—20 matches
Show 13 earlier matchesHide 13 earlier matches
Soonwoo KwonCourt 16—14 matches
MartínezShow 7 earlier matchesHide 7 earlier matches
Court 17—17 matches
Show 8 earlier matchesHide 8 earlier matches
Why do the numbered courts start at 3?
The numbered courts that hosted 2023 main-draw tennis are Court 3, then 5 to 8, and 12 to 17. There is no Court 1, 2 or 4, because the first two numbers were spent on show courts that outgrew them: Margaret Court Arena opened in 1988 as Show Court 1, and 1573 Arena is Show Court 2 under a sponsor’s name. Court 3 kept its number through this tournament and the two after it, and became ANZ Arena days before the 2026 edition.
Courts 9, 10 and 11 appear nowhere in this record: none drew a main-draw match, and none is in the tournament’s own courts table for 2023. The far end of the range is what makes this edition unusual — it is the only one on this site to play championship tennis on both Court 16 and Court 17, which between them carried 31 matches. The 2024 tournament used 17 and not 16; the 2025 and 2026 tournaments used neither.
The pale courts around the edge of the plan are practice and public courts, including the National Tennis Centre’s. They host no championship matches and carry no numbers on the public plan, so they stay unlabelled here too.
Matches are listed in the order they were played, on Australian Eastern Daylight Time — eleven hours ahead of UTC, and far enough east that a day session here was the evening before at home. Each start time is the tournament’s own record of when that match began; where the record did not survive, the match keeps its place in the day’s order without a time rather than borrowing one from another source.
The grounds plan is drawn from OpenStreetMap building footprints (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL).