TOPCOURT is a newly devised space for the Australian Open in the Melbourne Park precinct.
Located at Birrarung Marr Middle Terrace, along with the merch shops and digital gaming facilities, the area offers a Hoops half court and opportunities to play several types of tennis. POP Tennis, totem tennis and table tennis can be played. Of course, padel is available too, at the Red Bull Rally Padel Arena.
The Arena is where the inaugural Red Bull Rally Pro took place this year.
Padel was added to the Australian Open in 2023 and has become a bigger attraction each year since.
The Red Bull Rally Pro is an international invitational tournament in a Fast4 format with AU$20,000 prize money, featuring four male and four female teams.
The event was promoted by former top tennis players who have turned to padel. Pat Rafter of Australia, who attained the No. 1 ATP ranking in 1999, was joined by Sweden’s Jonas Björkman who rose to No. 1 in doubles and No. 4 in singles.
Officially, Rafter has become Australian Padel Ambassador and Björkman is Swedish National Padel Coach. They are both 52 years old now and have retained their competitive streaks.
The Rafter and Björkman combination obviously enjoyed their participation in the Red Bull Rally Pro, but didn’t manage to win any of their four rounds. The winners of the Men’s Doubles Final were Youp De Kroon and Julian Prins.
The Women’s Doubles was won by Aimee Gibson and Catherine Rose. The victory gave them a hat trick as the pair won the two proceeding tournaments – the Australian Padel Open in Sydney and the Melbourne Padel Open.
Rafter stayed around after the padel tournament for the announcement that he will become Vice-Captain of the Rest of the World team at the 2025 Laver Cup.
He will take over from Patrick McEnroe who’s been in the role since the first Laver Cup in 2017.
Vice-Captain Rafter will join Andre Agassi who has been named as the new World Captain and will also commence his Laver Cup duties this year.
“I never really actually thought about it before,” Rafter said, “but when Andre asked me to come along and help and be part of it I went ‘Yeah it would be fun’ because I do like Andre. We’ve had a great time together when we have caught up in the past.”
The 2025 Laver Cup will take place in San Francisco in September.
Taylor Fritz is the first confirmed player for the Rest of the World team under the guidance of Rafter and Agassi .
Title photo of Pat Rafter and Jonas Björkman by Jay Town / Tennis Australia