A former world circuit player who competed against household names like Bjorn Borg and John Newcombe in the early 1970s, Fitzgerald said he believed the tournament could provide a timely boost to attendance figures in the area.

He was earlier forced to cancel his clinics for the first term of school but was looking to make a few changes in a final bid to attract higher numbers.

“We had about 16-to-17 kids at Muswellbrook last year, but it just didn’t get any better than that so it just wasn’t financially viable,” he said.

“The Aussies doing so well at the Australian Open has obviously benefitted us this year.

“I’ve been a coach for a long time and your numbers are always better after the Australian Open, it’s a good advertisement for tennis.

“But I don’t know why it didn’t take off here, we certainly put the hours in.

“The kids that did come will be disappointed but we’re just hoping that by changing the day to Wednesday it’ll make a difference.”

Fitzgerald, who spent 20 years as a head coach at Dubbo and worked at state level in Melbourne, said the sporting opportunities available in the Upper Hunter had reduced tennis’ popularity.

He also claimed harsher living conditions overseas was making juniors more desperate for success in the game from a young age.

“You don’t see any of the kids in Muswellbrook or Singleton playing tennis in the back streets, but they are over in Europe and Russia because they see it as a way out,” he said.

“Kids are getting really good opportunities here from the coaching side of things these days but one of the biggest problems is that they are playing two or three sports at a time.”

Fitzgerald backed young guns Nick Kyrgios and Thanasai Kokkinakis to cause a few more upsets over more-fancied opponents in the Australian Open.

However, he felt the likes of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer would once again be too strong.