Cairns, Australia, 24 October 2012 | Tennis Australia

Fresh from a tour of Japan and China, the Australian Open trophies today head off around Australia with Cairns in Far North Queensland the first stop.

“The Australian Open is the Grand Slam of Asia-Pacific and the Australian Open Trophy Tour offers communities throughout this region the opportunity to be part of our amazing international event,” said Steve Wood, Tennis Australia CEO.

“Tennis fans around Australia will have the chance to feel like a Grand Slam champion by having their own photo opportunity with these magnificent trophies.

“In 2011, the Australian Open Trophy Tour visited more than 25 destinations Australia-wide, plus three cities across China, covering more than 80,000 kilometres. This year the trophies have already visited Japan and China and will now travel to each state and territory.”

During October the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup (men’s trophy) and Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup (women’s trophy) travelled to Tokyo, Japan for the first time, then returning to China to visit Beijing, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai.

In China the trophies attended the Asia-Pacific Australian Open Wildcard Play-off in Nanjing and the China Open (ATP and WTA tournament).

> check out the latest photos of the AO trophies during their tour of Beijing and Nanjing

Following their visit to Cairns, the trophies – affectionately known as Norm and Daphne – will travel to the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory, Launceston and Hobart in Tasmania, Ballarat in Victoria, plus Sydney, Canberra, Perth and Adelaide before finishing their journey at Melbourne Park on Monday 14 January for Day 1 of Australian Open 2013.

While on tour the trophies will visit schools, universities and tennis clubs as well as iconic Australian landmarks and attend official functions.

At each stop there will be a fun array of activities on offer including the popular kids’ development program MLC Tennis Hot Shots and new tennis fitness workout Cardio Tennis.

Australian tennis greats, past and present, will again join the tour as ambassadors to meet fans.

“As a player I felt I had a duty to represent the great players that had come before me, going right back to Sir Norman Brookes, in the way they had behaved on and off the court, and represented their country and tennis in Australia,” John Newcombe said.

Fans can follow the trophies on tour at australianopen.com.au. Those posing for photos with Norm and Daphne can download their photo with the trophies at flickr.com/photos/australian-open/.