For more than a century, Australia Day has been the highlight of the local tennis community, and for those further afield, it meant making the annual trip to attend a very special event.

The Wangaratta Lawn Tennis, Croquet and Pickleball Club will host their annual Australia Day tennis tournament for the 100th time this January, a monumental milestone for a country club event with a reputation which stands alongside some of the most storied events in Australian tennis.

First held in January of 1926, the tournament has withstood bushfires, floods, a pandemic, and a dozen other roadblocks, remaining strong through it all.

WLTCP president Sam Allen said it was a proud achievement for the club to roll the event into triple figures.

“This year is our 100th running, so we’re expecting it to be a big event, as it always is for our club, but we’re expecting this one to be a special one,” he said.

“It’s our major fundraiser for the year, all of those types of things, but it’s great to see the people coming back year after year

“We see it as quite a significant thing, to have 100 years of this one event and to see what it’s grown into today.”

The club was going above and beyond to celebrate the century of the event, including reworking the club's logo to reflect the history of the event, but Allen was keeping the lid on some of the more special commemorations.

“We put a team together, a little sub-committee about six months ago and we’ve worked towards a few things,” he said.

“We’ve just recently closed our merchandise order period, there are T-shirts, hats, those sorts of things that people have been able to order, so we’re really looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

“Hopefully we’ll get a lot of people wearing the merchandise over the weekend.

“We’re also working on a couple of other celebration things just to mark the tournament.”

Partnering with naming rights sponsor Dal Zotto Wines for the first time, and supported by Alfonso Building Solutions, the 100th running of the tournament will build on the carnival atmosphere off the courts which is so beloved by participants and their families.

“We’re extremely lucky to have Dal Zotto Wines come on board this year as our naming rights sponsor,” Allen said.

“As well as them sponsoring us, they’ll also have their Dal Zotto’s Bar set up for the three days, that’ll really add to our atmosphere.

“Hopefully that’ll be a really good partnership that can benefit both of us, we’re really happy to have them on board and extremely lucky to have their support.”

Allen was confident entries would match or even surpass last year’s event, having opened the doors on 5 December.

“Last year was pretty full, we had just over the 400 mark,” he said.

“There are certain events we’ll have to really watch entries, in the Open singles especially, because they all have to be played in certain timeslots.

“You’ve got all of your social events, plenty of people playing, and that’s where you get your major income, but you also get this high quality of tennis in the open grades.

“We get this mixture of familiar faces that people know and also you get some new faces who are playing some quality tennis as well.

“We’re really excited to see how all the grades shape up this year, and see what sort of tennis we can put on show.”

For more information about the Dal Zotto Wines Australia Day Tournament or to enter, visit www.wanglawntennis.com.au/tournament.html.