Tournament director Jake Dunn said the club had the backing of Tennis Victoria to run the tournament from December 28-30.

"Kim (Tobin) and I have been in contact with Tennis Vic and they've been helpful with the whole process," he said.

"I guess with the marketing as well.

"They're really encouraging it, which is good."

President Kim Tobin said it was a boon for south-west players and visitors alike.

"Not only for visiting players but for our local players, it's giving them the chance to re-establish back into competition tennis and they can pick up their experience locally," she said.

Tobin explained WLTC was one of the few centres in the state running tournaments as well as competition for junior players.

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She believes the championships will have great benefit for the town and sport.

The president said the club felt fortunate to be able to prepare for the tournament in a year when many other sports events have been cancelled.

The Standard reported last week the club also got the green light to run the Inter-Regional Country Championships from January 8-10.

But Tobin was quick to add it was important to be mindful the state was still in a fluid environment with the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Events will be run in a very COVIDSafe way," she said.

"We do have a COVIDSafe plan around the facility.

"We will be mindful of those restrictions as well."

She said key restrictions included the number of people congregating around courts, people registering when they come on site and following strict hospitality guidelines.

Dunn explained there were also changes to this year's championships due to the pandemic.

"Last year, the event had national points allocated to it," he said.

"So any results the players got went to their national ranking."

He said due to the pandemic and border closures Tennis Australia had cancelled its Junior Tour and Australian Money Tournament (semi-professional) events for this year.

He explained events for national points wouldn't be returning until January at this stage.

The tournament director said he had already heard from interested players who were keen to use the tournament as practice after a long break from the sport.

While there'll be no national points up for grabs, results will go to players' Universal Tennis Rating if in eligible events.

Dunn explained a UTR was helpful for players aspiring to compete in the American college system or overseas.

Another change is the championships have been scaled back from five days to three days.

Dunn said the idea was to make the commitment easier for travelling participants - to avoid travel for them close to Boxing day and New Year's Eve.

He's optimistic they'll get good numbers to the event which attracted about 300 players last summer.

"It's been on par to what previous years have been in terms of enquiries," he said.

He added it was harder to draw people in with no national points up for the taking.

There's also a new social event (singles and doubles) for adults as well as a parent-child doubles competition on this year's draw.

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