Canberra International to 'surprise' in long-awaited tennis tournament return

Tennis ACT is hopeful the return of the Canberra International will help make the capital a popular pre-Australian Open destination for star players once again, following some tough years impacted by bushfires and COVID-19.

While Canberra's Nick Kyrgios is unlikely to play, Tennis ACT chief executive Kim Kachel said the tournament is a golden chance for up-and-comer Camus to strut his stuff in front of a home crowd.

"This could be a great opportunity for him," Kachel told The Canberra Times.

"Charlie is currently in Turkey representing Australia in the Junior Davis Cup with our very own Milo Bradley as team manager.

"He's been orange boy for the Davis Cup team and Lleyton Hewitt selected him to travel to those ties. This will be a great event and an opportunity potentially for Charlie.

"He's played in a number of pro tour events here in Canberra and done incredibly well.

"He's the youngest player in the world to have six ATP points, so he's doing some amazing things."

The tournament has had a shaky history in recent years, and its return to the Canberra Tennis Centre for the first time since 2018 is sure to be welcomed by fans.

The pandemic meant Canberra missed out on the event in the last two years, and the year before that, bushfires in the region forced it to relocate to Bendigo.

But organisers are thrilled to see the tournament back in the capital.

"We typically attract some really solid top 100 players," Kachel said.

"There are a few big names that are also within that 50th to 250th range, so we might be surprised, there could be some really big names that choose Canberra to start their summer."

Kachel is expecting to have the draws finalised a few weeks prior to the event, which is scheduled to run between January 1-7 next year.

The tournament will be an ITF 60 event for the women and an ATP Challenger 100 event for the men, with a total prizemoney pool of nearly $300,000 on offer.

"We've had some really amazing players come through," Kachel said.

"Stefanos Tsitsipas, Jannik Sinner, who's a star of the future and is already in the top 10, Hubert Hurkacz from Poland, Andreas Seppi, Philipp Kohlschreiber - these are all top 20 players in the world that have used this event as the ideal preparation for the Australian Open.

"It's coming out of the European winter for a lot of them and coming into an Australian summer is pretty brutal.

"Canberra provides a good opportunity to get used to the environment here, get valuable matches in, play on the same surface as the Australian Open and really tune up for the Australian Open."

The Canberra International is viewed as a "stepping stone" for Tennis ACT to host even bigger tournaments in the future as they build back momentum for the sport in the nation's capital.

Offering the type of tournament that would appeal to a player of Kyrgios' level, for instance, is on the agenda.

"We'll always put our hand up for different opportunities," Kachel said.

"We hosted the Fed Cup here in 2018, and it was brilliant with Ash Barty and Casey Dellacqua's last professional match.

"So we know we can host those major events and will always put our hand up whenever opportunities arise."

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