Canberra will soon boast some of the nation's most comprehensive tennis facilities, paving the way for better, and possibly more professional tournaments in the capital in the future.
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Tennis ACT chief executive Kim Kachel said the new $10.3 million Amaroo Tennis Centre has gone out to tender for design, and with that design to be finalised this year, construction is planned to be completed by 2024.
The 10 ITF-standard hard courts proposed at a site at Amaroo district playing fields will complement the existing nine hard courts at the Canberra Tennis Centre in Lyneham, which will improve their delivery of major events.
"The Canberra Tennis Centre is still going to be the main facility for the major events, but Amaroo will act as a great satellite facility," Kachel said.
"We may utilise Amaroo for practice courts as well for the Canberra International, because we are really jam-packed here for that event, and we've had to use the AIS overflow practice courts.
"So it'll certainly host higher-level national events and it does have the ability to host international events as well."
Amaroo will also have two hot shots courts for juniors, a hitting wall, LED lighting, parking and a pavilion.
Kachel said the tennis calendar in the ACT is the busiest in the nation.
The Canberra International is held in January, followed by the back-to-back Canberra Claycourt International #1 and #2 in March, the latter of which started this week.
Australian stars Priscilla Hon and Marc Polmans claimed the women's and men's singles titles in the first tournament which concluded in two nail-biting finals on Sunday.
The clay court events are viewed as the perfect lead-up for the world's top 100-200 players to boost their ranking points ahead of the European clay season and French Open in May.
"We actually host more pro tour events here in Canberra than any other city and it's a huge economic impact for the capital," Kachel said.
"For these two weeks, it's not just 128 players staying for that whole fortnight - it's all the officials, all of the coaches, all of the player support teams and staff. So they inject a significant amount into the economy."
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Melanie Dinjaski
Melanie Dinjaski is an experienced sports journalist at the Canberra Times with a genuine love of all sports. She's covered every code from NRL to NFL. Melanie aims to bring Canberrans all the sports news they need to know. If you have a story worth sharing, get in touch!
Melanie Dinjaski is an experienced sports journalist at the Canberra Times with a genuine love of all sports. She's covered every code from NRL to NFL. Melanie aims to bring Canberrans all the sports news they need to know. If you have a story worth sharing, get in touch!
