It's all hands on deck down at the Fosterville Gold Tennis Centre during the lead up to next week's international tennis tournaments.
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Starting on Monday the Bendigo Tennis Association will host the ATP Challenger 80 and the ITF Women's 60.
The two tournaments will see some of the world's best women and men in action during the warm up for the Australian Open.
BTA general manager James Rouel said endless hours of hard work had been undertaken behind the scenes.
"It really is a big job to hold professional competitions such as these two, but we're doing our absolute best to make sure it's a great event for the players and spectators," he said.
"Normally we'd have around six months to prepare, but this year we only found out about six weeks out - there has been plenty of late nights and working bees recently involved in the preparations."
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Now that all of the pieces are in place and the players are beginning to arrive in Bendigo, Rouel couldn't be happier to host the world-class tournament.
"Thanks to help from the City of Greater Bendigo, Tennis Australia and all of our volunteers, everything at the centre is looking like a treat.
"It's all paid off and we're ready for some tennis."
During the past few days a troop of volunteers has been hard at work setting up marquees, stocking fridges, tirelessly cleaning and doing whatever needed to ensure the players and spectators have a first class experience at the Nolan Street tennis complex.
Nicole Rouel is among the volunteers.
"These sorts of tournaments just simply wouldn't go ahead without the hard work of volunteers," she said.
"It's as simple as that."
One additional hurdle this year is ensuring all COVID-19 safety protocols are in place, which includes ensuring attendees check in and masks are worn when needed etc.
"Having the correct COVID rules in place is absolutely paramount," she said.
"These are the players who are either in the Open or in the qualifiers and it would be devastating for them to be caught up in an outbreak.
"Therefore we are taking every precaution we possibly can which includes having COVID marshals to ensure the safety of not just the players, but for everyone in attendance."
Some of the world's top-ranked men and women, including CoCo Vandeweghe and Cem Ilkel, will compete for equal prize money.
Among the Australian women in action is Western Australian Talia Gibson who has been in Bendigo training in the lead up to the first round.
The action commences on Monday for both men and women and at this stage the women's singles will be held on Saturday January 8 with the men's singles and other finals held on Sunday.
Tickets are now on sale for the event at the Bendigo Visitor Centre, with prices starting at $5 for an adult daily pass or $25 for a weekly all-access ticket.
Meanwhile junior tickets start at $5 for a daily pass and $15 for weekly admission to all games.
Tickets can also be purchased at the gate.
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