THE Mildura Grand Tennis Inter-national will not return in 2021.
Mildura Lawn Tennis Club secretary Wendy Dickie said Tennis Australia had been in contact this month to let them know the annual feature event on the Mildura tennis calendar hosted by the club would not go ahead this year due to the ongoing ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve been told by (Tennis Australia Pro Tour manager) Fiona Luscombe that due to current border restrictions there won’t be a Pro Tour (event) in Mildura this year,” she said.
“I think we were sort of expecting it due to the issues around inter-national travellers.
“It was hinted we wouldn’t get it in November or so last year but we just sent an email again this year and (Luscombe) said nothing is happening at this stage.”
Part of the issue with holding the Mildura Grand Tennis International, which over the years has brought world No.1 women’s player Ash Barty and firebrand Nick Kyrgios grace the lawn courts at the club, is that players are often based overseas and have been unable to get to Australia due to the pandemic.
“A lot of the players were international players last year. If I had to guess, 50 per cent who came would have been from overseas,” Dickie said.
“The girl who won last year (Marianna Zakarlyuk) is from Ukraine … Brydan Klein (last year’s men’s champion) is British, but I don’t know if he lives in Australia or England.”
The 2020 version of the tournament was one of the last events to be held in Sunraysia before the COVID-19 pandemic began taking its toll on the region’s sports.
Dickie said the club would look at other ways to bring in money now that the event would not go ahead.
“We’re going to try and mitigate the loss of income by holding a back-to-front draw later in the season to try and get some fundraising happening,” she said.
“Hopefully people support that.”
Tennis Victoria, which provides the tournament director and officials for the Pro Tour tournament, was contacted for comment but was unable to respond by deadline.
It is expected to make a statement today.
