Top players turn to capital for Australian Open warm-up Chris Dutton Paolo Lorenzi will be the No.1 seed for the tournament on   January 9.
Tennis ACT will roll out a field boasting nine of the world's top 100 players for a $75,000 warm up to the Australian Open as Canberra takes its place on the summer of tennis calendar. 
Italy's Paolo Lorenzi will be the No.1 seed when the tournament begins on   January 9, with the event acting as a last chance for players to fine tune their game before the first grand slam of the year.
Tennis ACT will officially release the field on Tuesday, with world No. 68 Lorenzi to be the headline among a solid field for the ATP Challenger event's first year at the multi-million dollar Canberra Tennis Centre.
Canberra missed out on its bid to host the Davis Cup tie against the United States, with officials opting to take the contest to Kooyong in Melbourne.
Canberra officials are exploring more ways to bring top-line tennis to the capital, including the potential of having a court built into any plans for a new convention centre in Civic.
It is hoped the capital will have a permanent presence on the calendar to offer players a chance to improve away from the spotlight of Sydney or Melbourne.
It follows the success of the $50,000 Canberra International in   November and continues the sport's growing popularity off the back of Nick Kyrgios' rise.
Kyrgios is set to work with Australian great Lleyton Hewitt in the coming years when the veteran finishes his playing career after the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Hewitt 's hopes of a farewell Hopman Cup triumph are all but over but he was more than happy to get a tough three sets under his belt on Sunday night in Australia Gold's 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic.Hewitt started slowly in his first singles match since losing in five sets to Bernard Tomic in last year's US Open second round with Czech world No. 41 Jiri Vesely winning the first four games on his way to the opening set.
But the former world No.1 fought hard for almost two-and-a- half hours before Vesely won 6-3, 6-7, 6-4. While Hewitt and Jarmila Wolfe lost all three matches in the tie, Hewitt enjoyed the experience in preparation for Melbourne but is trying not to focus on the fact it's his farewell tour.
"The arena is fantastic. It's very similar to Rod Laver Arena with the set up and the distance from the crowd. It's great preparation for the Australian Open," Hewitt said.
with AAP