Sydney - Sydney will struggle to wrest the Australian Open tennis championship from Melbourne, top officials in Australia's second-biggest city said Saturday. "It's a great stadium, the players love Melbourne, we have got the best sports precinct in the world and I don't think we need to take too seriously the threats that are coming from Sydney," Victorian state Premier John Brumby told reporters.
"I met last week with Geoff Pollard, the president of Tennis Australia, and we have an excellent relationship with Tennis Australia, we have a fantastic facility," Brumby said. "We are working with them to make some improvements and we'll be making some announcements about that next year."
Brumby was responding to an announcement by the New South Wales state government that it would build a harbourside stadium to snaffle the tournament when Melbourne's contract runs out in 2016.
Glebe Island, near Darling Harbour and the Anzac Bridge, is one of the sites being considered for the tennis complex.
