Following Port Douglas Tennis Club’s (PDTC) Free Tennis Days held last year, our town has been awarded a main draw player to cheer for during the Australian Open 2016.

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In 2015 PDTC hosted two “Free Tennis Day” events at the Port Douglas Markets and the Mossman Markets to encourage people of all ages and abilities to pick up a racket and have a hit.

By hosting a Free Tennis Day event, PDTC earned points for our town, with extra points earned for every person in attendance on the day.  The top points-scoring towns have been rewarded with players to support on the court at Melbourne Park this summer.

Port Douglas has been allocated Feliciano Lopez from Spain and ranked 19th in the world. Lopez achieved his career high singles ranking of world number two in March 2015.

During the Australian Open, Port Douglas, the wider community and anyone who has had any association with our PDTC, is asked to support our player via social media and using hashtags and sharing photos.  Also, if anyone is attending the Australian Open, they are encouraged to hold up signs with “Port Douglas is cheering for Feliciano Lopez at Australian Open 2016”.

PDTC will be holding events over two weeks during the Australian Open on 23rd, 24th, 30th and 31st of January.  There will be adult and junior fun sessions and a bbq as well as sign ups at the events during the Australian Open.

Tennis legend Todd Woodbridge said he was excited for the Tennis Australia initiative that will roll out during the Australian Open.

“Aligning the world’s top players with towns that have embraced Free Tennis Days is a great way to reward them for promoting tennis in their community,” Woodbridge said.

“The players enjoy hearing they have a whole Australian town cheering for them, and they often take to social media to engage with their towns.

“This initiative is all about encoring tennis participation everywhere from major cities to rural communities and giving these towns a chance to get noticed by the world’s top players.”

Newsport has contacted Mayor Julia Leu and Tennis Australia Media for comments from Mr Feliciano Lopez.