Inside the AO Glam Slam – and What’s in Store for 2023 – Broadsheet

The Australian Open isn’t just a major international tennis tournament – it’s also a vehicle for a bunch of brilliant smaller events. Perhaps none shines brighter than the AO Glam Slam, which celebrates the Australian LGBTQI+ tennis community.

“For me, all of these things are about visibility, because you can’t be what you can’t see,” says singer and television presenter Brihony Dawson, who will be MC at this year’s Glam Slam. “The queer community has always been such a niche kind of thing and so to have it alongside a grand slam and to have it in the same venues and to have it run at the same time, it puts us into the mainstream. It’s not an afterthought.”

This isn’t Dawson’s first appearance at the Glam Slam; in 2020 they took to the courts as a player.

“I grew up playing tennis and a friend invited me to the launch of the Glam Slam a couple of years ago,” Dawson says. “I was like, ‘What? I can go and play tennis with the gays? Absolutely, sign me up.’”

Unlike the main event, the Glam Slam is governed by Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance rules, with five divisions to cater for all skill levels. It means that even for the weekend warriors there’s the chance to serve and volley on the same courts as the professionals.

“If you’d told 12-year-old Brihony that they were going to play on show court three at some stage in their life, I would have lost my mind,” Dawson says. “We had ball people, proper umpires. I was like, ‘This is pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever done’.”

This year, the AO is bringing its celebrated Pride Day into a massive combo event with the Glam Slam final, which will take place from 1pm to 7pm on Friday January 27 at the 4000-capacity Kia Arena. The day will spotlight the open division and women’s finals as well as Glam Slam’s centrepiece, The Celebrity Showdown. This match pits two teams of five against each other, with two former tennis pros, two celebrities and one non-playing captain per team. The match is all about raising money for charity and having fun, though Dawson recalls that skills still come in handy.

“My backhand is a piece of shit, but my forehand is lightning, and they worked that out pretty quickly and all I got was backhands for the rest of the game,” they say.

Glam Slam Finals day will also ramp up the party atmosphere with live music performances from pop sensation Vanessa Amorosi, art pop singer Montaigne and DJ Bertie. For Dawson, it’s all part of creating an open space for a vibrant community to have fun.

“It’s great because it’s the coming together of people in your community,” they say. “The atmosphere around the tennis is awesome, you get to play on one of the major courts and it’s a very social event as well. I just love it, it’s one of the best events in the queer calendar.”

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with the Australian Open 2023. See more information and book Glam Slam tickets.