THE buzz of the Australian Open and the travelling roadshow of international tennis may have passed by for another year, but there is still plenty of quality ready to go on show this weekend in Bathurst.

The Bathurst Tennis Centre will play host to another of its annual competitions, the Bathurst Silver Junior Tournament.

In past years this event has been a gold level fixture, or in other words, the second highest tier possible in the sport at a junior level in Australia.

Due to the rising stocks of the centre’s other major tournament held each December, the status of this tournament has been scaled back to silver level.

Not that it looks likely to diminish the standard of play too much, according to competition organiser and centre manager Andrew Mitton.

“We’ve had over 150 entries which is pretty good, it is a national level tournament still so we’d expect a pretty high standard across the board,” he said.

“We’ve got players coming from Sydney, Queensland, Victoria and Canberra which is a good sign. Each of the divisions should be pretty hotly contested.

“Given the form she’s been in over the last 12 months, Grace Schumacher is the obvious one from Bathurst who we would expect to do pretty well. She has been playing fantastic tennis and is seeded number one in the under 14s girls competition.

“Sam Burrow is also seeded in her competition. Tayla Brasier just missed out on being seeded in the girls under 12s as well.

“There are a few in the older divisions as well who maybe don’t have a lot of experience at this level, but are giving it a go for the first time. Grace is definitely the one to watch though.”

Mitton isn’t too concerned about the lowering of the status of the event given the massive numbers the BTC has attracted for its other event.

“This used to be a gold level thing, but now that December event has become so popular that they’ve elevated it instead, and the numbers for it have gone through the roof,” he said.

“Normally in the past we’d be looking at about 200 kids for this weekend, but it is down a bit. That’s okay though because instead a lot of them will come back for the other tournament.”

Play gets underway tomorrow morning with most of the divisions to wrap up mid-way through Monday.