There wasn’t a spare seat in Rod Laver Arena for Sunday’s men’s final, which was filled with billionaires, corporate heavyweights, sporting legends, television stars and political operatives there to see and be seen as well as to watch the tennis.
The closest place to the action was the on-court seats, occupied by actors Sarah Snook and David Lawson, who were next to Hollywood star Liam Hemsworth.
Snook shot to fame in the Murdoch-inspired family drama Succession and had some real-life inspiration on hand in the form of Sarah Murdoch – the daughter-in-law of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and wife of Lachlan Murdoch – who also attended the match.
Hemsworth and his fiancee, model Gabriella Brooks, jetted in from Byron Bay for the event.
However, the best seats in Rod Laver Arena are generally considered to be the front row right behind the centre of the baseline, only available to guests of Tennis Australia.
Twenty-two-time grand slam champion and two-time Australian Open winner Rafael Nadal was deservedly in the prime position, right next to Tennis Australia chair Chris Harrop and a few seats along from governor Margaret Gardner.
Tennis Australia’s guests have dinner before the match in the swanky O enclosure, which has direct access onto the arena.
Other guests in O included Formula 1 driver Mark Webber and former America’s Cup-winning sailor John Bertrand, now president of the Australian Sport Hall of Fame.
Corporate heavyweights on Tennis Australia’s invite list included trucking magnates Lindsay Fox and Andrew Fox, and Myer family scion Rupert Myer.
They were joined by former Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci, who now heads up ticketing giant Ticketek and Sir Rod Eddington, who chairs booze conglomerate Lion.
Seated a little further along from the Tennis Australia seats was Murdoch.
Before the game, she literally bumped into fellow media mogul Ryan Stokes, chief executive of Seven Group Holdings and son of former Channel Seven chairman Kerry.
For the match, she was right next to celebrity chef Guillaume Brahimi and billionaire chicken heiress Tamie Ingham, who are expecting their first child together, three years after their glamorous celebrity-filled wedding in Paris.
They were chatting away and Murdoch may have been offering some advice for the expectant couple from her popular Birth Skills book, which she published several years ago alongside obstetric physiotherapist Juju Sundin, a step-by-step guide to taking charge of labour and birth.
Emirates guests at the match also included Australian cricket coach Ricky Ponting, AO, Australian actors Rachel Griffiths, Simon Baker and Sigrid Thornton and US actor Paul Ben-Victor, who’s best known for playing the mobster Vondas in The Wire.
Fellow thespian Asher Keddie was also at the match as a guest of Channel Nine, alongside TV personality Andy Lee and his fiancee, Rebecca Harding.
Microsoft founder and one of the world’s richest men, Bill Gates, was back at Rod Laver Arena for a third consecutive day at the tournament.
Gates has made headlines worldwide after his appearance in the final tranche of documents in the Epstein files.
But rather than lying low, the billionaire was courtside at the Open with partner Paula Hurd in front-row seats.
Also in the crowd was Hungry Jacks founder Jack Cowin, just in front of property developer Tim Gurner, famed for his advice to young people to solve their housing woes by putting their ‘$22 a pop’ avocado toast toward a deposit instead.
Perhaps he put his avocado-on-toast savings towards getting a ticket to Sunday’s match.
Tabcorp chief executive Gillon McLachlan was seated in the front row with his wife, Laura. The couple was backing it up after the women’s final.
The ANZ seats were presided over by newish chief executive Nuno Matos and ANZ chairman Paul O’Sullivan.
In the ANZ group was billionaire cardboard tsarina, Fiona Geminder, deputy chair and co-owner of packaging conglomerate Visy.
Also spotted in the crowd was fellow billionaire, entrepreneur Ed Craven, founder of crypto-gambling giant Stake.com and streaming platform Kick.
ANZ, after a few lean sponsorship years, thundered back to the top-tier sponsorship this year, even buying naming rights to the old Court 3, rebranded as the nicely alliterative ANZ Arena.
Other celebrities in its orbit included billionaire and Dodo founder Larry Kestelman, the property developer and basketball league owner, along with billionaire Justin Hemmes, owner of the Merivale, Australia’s largest hospitality company, which was excluded from this masthead’s Good Food Guide following claims it exploited workers and ignored claims of sexual harassment.
The company denied the claims. Hemmes, 53, was accompanied by partner Madeline Holtznagel, 28.
It may be Ralph Lauren’s last year as the apparel sponsor for the Australian Open, but that did not stop the US luxury clothing brand from hosting numerous celebrities for the Men’s final.
Guests included actors Snook and Joel Edgerton, model Adut Akech and K-pop star DK, a vocalist in 13-member boy group SEVENTEEN.
The 28-year-old, real name Seok-min Lee, sports 8.3 million Instagram followers, while his group SEVENTEEN flexes twice as much: 16.3 million so he attracted quite the crowd of fans outside the marquee.
It was all smiles in the luxury Emirates lounge before the game for billionaire investor Alex Waislitz and fiancee Rebekah Behbahani.
The newly engaged Waislitz reached a settlement deal with his former wife, Visy heiress Heloise Pratt, in September last year, enabling him to keep control of his Thorney Investments empire and ending a messy divorce battle.
It had been a while between visits to the Australian open for Angus Sampson, who was a guest of champagne house Piper-Heidsieck.
The LA-based actor stars in the Lincoln Lawyer, which is just about to air its second season but he reckons the last time he attended the tournament was back in 2005 when Lleyton Hewitt lost to Marat Safin in the final.
“We went back to his hotel afterwards and it was all prepared for a winner, I guess,” Sampson said.
“There was hardly anyone there. No one knew what to do. And then he came down and he got engaged.”
Hotel giant Marriott Bonvoy hosted cricketers David Warner and Aaron Finch, one of the most dominant white ball opening partnerships in Australian history, along with their wives, Candice Warner and Amy Finch.
The Warners have been enthusiastic attendees at the Australian Open, bringing their daughters along earlier in the tournament.
On the political front, prime minister Anthony Albanese and premier Jacinta Allan were absent, having already enjoyed their tennis fix earlier in the week.
Instead, it was left to deputy premier Ben Carroll to lead an all-male contingent of ministers at the final, including major events minister Steve Dimopoulous and minister for economic growth Danny Pearson.
They were joined in the O enclosure by powerful public servants Jeremi Moule, secretary of the department of premier and cabinet and Matt Carrick, secretary of department of jobs, skill, industry and regions.
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