A Slamtracker already provides real-time updates of qualifying play that began on Wednesday, and fans can relive and share their favorite moments via Facebook and Twitter through a database of classic matches.
But the real fun begins when the tournament officially begins next Monday.
Tournament officials plan to man the @AustralianOpen Twitter feed 24 hours per day all the way through final matches on Jan. 29 for the event's global audience. There will be a fan leader board that ranks players based on buzz and provides a social counterpoint to on-court results. There will even be a team of selected "Fan-bassadors" who prove themselves by being particular active online and sharing a wealth of tennis knowledge.
The Australian Open has always been on the cutting edge of social media use among tennis's major Grand Slam competitions. But it's taking a new step this year by uniting everything under the umbrella of what organizers call a "social media hub" Fan Centre.
"We're concentrating more than ever on engaging socially with our fans," Daniel Lattimer, who works on the digital team for the event, told Mashable. "We were the first Grand Slam on Twitter, and engagement has been going up there and on Facebook, so it's important to provide people with that complement to the actual watching of the tennis during the tournament."
Australian Open fans won't just be able to engage in dialogue with one another and tournament officials via social media -- they'll also participate in competitions of their own and even have the spotlight turned back on themselves at times.
The Fan Centre leader board will continuously rank the top 10 male and female players at the tournament according to who is being mentioned the most on social media and whose content is gaining the most views on the Australian Open site. Fan-bassadors, meanwhile, will be chosen according to who provides the most useful analysis and commentary from different corners of the globe and set up with profiles on the main tournament site featuring an avatar and small bio. The platform presents a great opportunity for fans to gain traffic for their personal blogs and sites via AustralianOpen.com's huge audience.
"We're kind of tapping into people's competitiveness as fans as well as their love for the players," said Kim Trengrove, the digital manager for Tennis Australia, the sport's governing body Down Under.
Lattimer said that they hope to have selected Fan-bassadors from as many countries as possible by tournament's end to help promote the Australian Open worldwide and spread news through different time zones.
Additional digital initiatives of the tournament include live-streamed in-house video coverage, social prediction games, new mobile websites and apps for iPhone and Android.
But the slew of social media engagement doesn't just serve the Australian Open -- it serves a more ambitious interest, too.
"Our overriding goal is to increase interest in tennis; it always come back to that," Trengrove said. "Ultimately, we want to get people playing the sport too, and our goal is to get 4 million people playing here by 2016."