Melbourne has hosted Formula 1 since 1996 (Image Formula1.com)

The Australian Open is one of the four major tennis tournaments (Image Tennis.com)

The AFL Grand Final is held on the last Saturday of September

It was 2006 and a young Marcos Baghdatis was in the Australian Tennis Open final. Those who knew little of the player could be excused for thinking him Australian given the home support lavished on the Cypriot.

But in Rod Laver Arena that night it didn't matter where someone was from or whether they supported Collingwood or St Kilda, followed tennis or Australian Football; what mattered was that you were sharing a moment of athletic prowess with some 10,000 other like-minded folk.

Because in Australia, and Melbourne in particular, sport matters.

Hosting the Australian Open, the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix and a plethora of other high-profile sporting events, Melbourne is widely considered the sporting capital of the world.

And Melbournians take that honor seriously; a stroll through the city on any given weekend between April and September will attest to this, when you’re likely to cross paths with any number of vocal Australian Football fans (a tourist tip: avoid attempting a debate about football codes in a country where there are more types of football than there are major political parties).

But it’s not just the local football teams that garner the passionate support of Melbournians. These folk will watch anything (including synchronized swimming).

At the center of sporting life in Melbourne, or Australia for that matter, is the world famous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). It was from within this arena that Melbourne hosted the first Southern Hemisphere Olympic Games (in 1956), the first ever Cricket Test Match (between Australia and England in 1877) and annually hosts the nation’s largest sporting event, the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final.

Throw in the Melbourne Cup (one of the world’s most prestigious horse races), regular international rugby and soccer matches, high-profile golf tournaments like the Australian Masters and the President’s Cup, and the Australian MotoGP (a short drive away) and you begin to understand why, in 2010, the city was named the ‘World's Ultimate Sports City’ for the third year in a row by SportBusiness Group.