A women's Tour event, which regularly featured in
the first week of a new season in Auckland, was last held in
2020 with 23-time major champion Serena Williams lifting the
trophy.
Auckland also hosts a men's tournament before the Australian
Open - the season's opening Grand Slam - is held in Melbourne.
"A number of really positive announcements by the government in
the last month or so have given us a lot of confidence around
our ability to stage in 2023," Tennis Auckland Chief Executive
Rohan West told the Tennis Talk podcast.
"But also, the WTA and ATP have been extremely supportive in
terms of doing everything that they can to ensure that we can
stage them in January, right to the point where both of their
boards have locked in our dates for next year."
West said the women's tournament has been pencilled in for Jan.
2-8 while the ATP event will be held from Jan. 9-14 ahead of the
Australian Open.
New Zealand imposed some of the toughest border controls in the
world during the COVID pandemic but vaccinated travellers from
Australia can enter the country from around mid-April without
the need to quarantine.
West said he was heading to Miami to have further discussions
with ATP and WTA officials during the co-sanctioned Miami Open,
starting next week.
"Part of my time over in Miami would just be starting to develop
those relationships with player agents and having those initial
discussions around the fact that we are coming back," he added.
"We do want to recreate the vibe, the feel of ... 2020 and
really pick up the ball from where we left in January 2020."
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
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