Australia may face a tug of war over the site of the Australian Open after politicians in Sydney announced plans to build a multi-million dollar tennis facility to attract the tournament.
The Australian Open, which is the year's first Grand Slam, is traditionally held in January each year in the Victorian state capital of Melbourne. Yet, despite holding the rights to host the event until 2016, local press reports say the New South Wales state government is to build a tennis arena in Glebe in an attempt to win the tournament after Melbourne’s contract expires.
Events NSW's, Geoff Parmenter, told Reuters: "I think the Australian Open is clearly a terrific annual event and it's something that any events company would be mad not to have on their radar - that said, it's locked into Melbourne until at least 2016.
"It's very early days and while we've had some discussions with Tennis Australia, there's nothing formal [arranged]."
However, the leader of the ruling party in Victoria, John Brumby, said they would fight to hold on to the event: "It's a great stadium, the players love Melbourne, we've got the best sports precinct in the world and I don't think we need to take too seriously the threats that are coming from Sydney," he told Australian Associated Press.
"We're working with [Tennis Australia] to make some improvements and we'll be making some announcements about that next year."
The 2009 Australian Open runs from January 19-February 1.
