Sydney wants to bid for OpenVictoria laughs off Sydney's threat to Aussie Open
In terms of Grand Slam "footprints" they don't come any bigger than this month's Australian Open. 
Even before the first Grand Slam of the year begins on   January 18, organisers are already boasting that the Australian Open will have the world's biggest Grand Slam footprint - at about 255,739 square metres. 
Stretching from Federation Square, along the river and down Olympic Boulevard to the clay courts near Swan Street and Punt Road, this year's Australian Open precinct will dwarf that of the 120,000 square metres taken up by the US Open in New York and the 90,000 square metres Paris devotes to Roland Garros. Wimbledon occupies the smallest patch of Grand Slam turf, with 54,633 square metres. 
This year's enlarged Australian Open footprint is due to the inclusion of all three Birrarung Marr terraces, which will host a free tennis-inspired festival for all ages lasting the length of the tournament.
Tennis Australia's director of events and facilities, Tom Larner, said the festival was a way of introducing the public to a new approach to Melbourne Park, ahead of a pedestrian footbridge being completed next   January.
"Birrarung Marr will be the new front door of the Australian Open in 2017," Mr Larner said. "So it makes sense to educate people about this major new entry which will expand the tournament's footprint at the same time."
Birrarung Marr's middle terrace will cater for tot-to-teen tennis tragics, with kid-friendly courts and ballkid challenges on offer.
Meanwhile adult armchair experts who want to be close to the action will be spoiled with an oversized "tennis telly" to rival the big screen at Federation Square on the lower terrace, which will also become a hub for punters more interested in food than the impact of flu on Federer's form or Sharapova's left forearm.
Classic Melbourne restaurants, among them Mamasita and Huxtaburger, have obliged by setting up bases on Birrarung Marr's lower terrace.
Not to be left out, the city's renowned cafe culture will also be represented by local outfits including Cobb Lane and, as the weather hots up, a yet to be unveiled "Australian Open gelato" from Gelato Messina.
Mr Larner said the Birrarung Marr festival was designed both to share the Grand Slam spirit over the tennis fortnight and strengthen the "natural pathway" between Melbourne Park and the rest of the city.
The Glasshouse at Olympic Park will also be commandeered as yet another hospitality hotspot during the fortnight of tennis.
"It's shaping up as an incredible tennis summer for all of Melbourne," said Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley.
Last year's Open drew a tournament record crowd of 703,899 visitors, 65 per cent of them from Victoria. A fifth travelled from interstate and 14 per cent from overseas. Organisers say last year the global television audience was scattered across 900 million households in more than 200 territories - the bulk of it in the Asia-Pacific region.
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