The first ever Oceania Tennis Championships begin in New Caledonia's Noumea today, featuring some of the leading players from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific.
Among the players taking part are New Caledonia's Nicolas N'Godrela, who won the singles title at last years Pacific Mini Games and New Zealand's Adam Thompson, who has been as high as 677 in the world.
The tournament director, Gerard Winter, says the event is a good opportunity players in Oceania to challenge themselves against higher-ranked opponents.
"New Caledonia has decided to do it for two years, we do it here and we will do it again in 2012. In Oceania they have some good players with potential but for them they are so far from everyone and it is not very easy for them to compete, so this was a good opportunity to have in the Oceania family, New Zealand and Australia."
Gerard Winter says a teams event will take place over the weekend followed by singles and doubles events later next week.
