The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra hosted the first national tennis draft camp on 19 and 20 October in a quest to identify and develop the nation’s best junior tennis players.

Twenty-five players were put through a range of intensive skill and fitness tests to assess their ability and potential for making the transition to elite competition.

The best performing players at the tennis draft camp will be considered for selection as scholarship holders in the 2010–11 intake of the AIS Tennis program.

The AIS Tennis program, in partnership with Tennis Australia, supports the development of talented athletes by providing access to leading coaching and sport science expertise and world-class training facilities, including newly constructed clay courts modelled on the French Open surface.

Todd Woodbridge, head coach of the Australian Davis Cup team, is playing a lead role in helping to find and develop talented tennis prospects, and was impressed by the players taking part in the camp.

‘Having watched some of these young tennis players, I am convinced we have some of the best 15 and 16-year-old boys since the 1980s,’ Woodbridge said.

‘The challenge now is to work hard with these kids and develop their talents.’

Joining Woodbridge at the camp was junior Davis Cup team captain Ray Ruffels, Tennis Australia athlete development manager Craig Morris and Spanish clay court specialist Felix Mantilla.