Te Anau, better known as the gateway to the Fiordland National Park, will host a World Tennis Tour15 event this week, a step up in status for an event which began only six years ago.
An invitational tournament first started in Te Anau in 2013 and with the support of the community it has grown every year, with top New Zealand players such as Finn Tearney and Rubin Statham attending.
It was always played over a weekend but that is now a prelude to the new event.
Tennis New Zealand announced in August a World Tennis Tour M15 Te Anau event. It will feature ATP men's tour rankings points. It will start at Te Anau today, after the Te Anau Tennis Invitational event took place over the weekend.
A sister event for female players, featuring WTA tour points and identical prize money will be played in Hamilton in February.
The men's World Tennis Tour includes tournaments with prize money ranging from $15,000 up to $25,000.
It is designed to support talented junior players in their progression to the senior game, and target the prize money effectively at professional tournaments to enable more players to make a living
The M 15 event in Te Anau will involve more than 50 players from nearly a dozen countries.
The Te Anau community banded together in 2013 and got the tournament up and running with $20,000 in funding. It has grown over the years and attracted most of the top players from New Zealand.
But the M 15 event is a real bonus for the sport and Te Anau this week. It is a good lead-in for the ASB Classic, which begins in Auckland on January 6.
Tennis NZ chief executive Julie Paterson said the new world tennis tour event was a big advance for the sport in New Zealand.
It was seen as a crucial step in player development pathways for budding New Zealand professionals.
"It is fantastic to be able to announce our first World Tennis Tour Professional events here in New Zealand.
"Without these events, the pathway to full-time professional tennis is so much harder for talented Kiwis. Having the chance to provide wildcards to our players gives them a chance to earn crucial rankings points on home soil.
"It’s an advantage players from most developed tennis countries enjoy and it’s great we can now start to level the playing field," Tennis NZ high performance director Simon Rea said in a statement released when the Te Anau event was announced.
Paterson said the ASB Classic was a great event but it had limited involvement for New Zealand players.
The prize pool for the tournament is $US15,000 ($NZ22,500).
