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What time should I arrive at Melbourne Park?

Early arrival only pays off if you're holding a Ground Pass

How early you should arrive at Melbourne Park depends entirely on which ticket you're holding — a reserved seat means your spot is yours whenever you arrive, but a Ground Pass has no assigned seating anywhere, so the earlier you're through the gates, the better your access to the outside courts.

Ground Pass — arrive early, it genuinely matters

Gates typically open around 10am during the day session. Outside courts fill up gradually through the morning — by early afternoon on a weekend, standing room is common at the more popular courts. Arriving close to gate-opening is the one part of an Australian Open visit where showing up early has a real, direct payoff: closer viewing, more courts seen before crowds build, and a better shot at seeing a higher-ranked player warming up before their session.

Outside Courts — Grounds Pass Strategy

Outside Courts — Grounds Pass Strategy

The cheapest ticket at the Open, and often the best — if you know when to arrive and where to go

The reserved-seat courts get the marketing, but the grounds pass is where the Australian Open's actual value proposition lives. You're paying a fraction of a Rod Laver ticket for access to five or six simultaneous matches, the freedom to leave one mid-set for a better one two courts over, and a genuine chance at seeing a player before anyone outside the sport knows their name. I've watched more interesting tennis on a grounds pass, court-hopping through an afternoon, than I have from a single reserved seat watching one match start to finish. That's not a consolation-prize argument, it's a real structural feature of how first-week Grand Slam tennis works: there's more good tennis being played simultaneously than any one ticket can show you, and the grounds pass is the only ticket type built around that fact instead of against it.

Melbourne Park

Worth knowing

  • —Check the Order of Play on the AO app the evening before, not the morning of — this is the single biggest edge for planning which outside court to head to first before the crowd catches up.
  • —The crowd on outside courts predictably thins out again in early afternoon once the morning rush settles into seats — a good window to move to a court you'd earlier found full.
  • —1573 Arena and Court 3 both hold 3,000 and are included on a grounds pass with no separate ticket needed, unlike Kia Arena and John Cain Arena which can sell out separately and only offer grounds-pass access to unsold sections.

Reserved seat — arrive on your own schedule

A Grandstand, Show Court Reserved, or Hospitality ticket holds your seat regardless of arrival time — the early-arrival advantage here is about getting settled, browsing the wider precinct, and finding your gate before your session starts, not about claiming a spot. Still worth building in real margin, since Melbourne Park is a large complex and walking to the wrong entrance costs genuine time.

Exact gate-opening times aren't published yet

The 2027 tournament's exact daily gate-opening times haven't been published as of this writing — based on the pattern in recent years, expect gates to open roughly 1-2 hours before the day session's first match. Confirm exact times via ausopen.com closer to the tournament.