 The Kooyong Classic taking place the week before the first Grand Slam of the regular season, the Australian Open, exhibition matches are frequently organised by the event, outside of the competition, to allow top players lacking practice to play matches before the Open.The first Kooyong exhibition tournament took place in 1988, the year the Australian Open moved from the courts of the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, which had become too small to host the event, to the newly built National Tennis Centre at Flinders Park (which would become known as Melbourne Park in 1996).Initiated by Colin Stubs, still the director of the tournament in 2009, the first "Kooyong Invitational" was created to continue the tradition of having a world-class tennis tournament at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club.