Woodbridge made the claim during the Australian Institute of Sport tennis draft camp yesterday.

The camp is this week putting 30 of Australia's best junior male and female tennis players through their paces to decide 2010 scholarship places.

A scholarship, worth about $150,000, guarantees Australian tennis's next generation access to coaching, travel, sports science and medical support for the coming year.

Newly-appointed Davis Cup coach Woodbridge yesterday joined junior Davis Cup team captain Ray Ruffels, Tennis Australia athlete development manager Craig Morris and Spanish claycourt specialist Felix Mantilla to scout the assembled talent.

Woodbridge, a winner of 83 doubles and two singles titles, liked what he saw, claiming the current crop of teenage male players was the best Australia had produced in 20 years.

It came after Jason Kubler, Joey Swasyland and Luke Saville won the junior Davis Cup in Mexico two weeks ago.

''The talent here, I think we've got the best block of 15 to 16-year-old boys that we've had since the '80s,'' Woodbridge said.

''We now have a group that has the ability to leapfrog each other to success.

''If one drops off a bit they can hang on to the coat-tails of the others and just hang on. I'm excited about that because one of the things we've got to try to do in tennis in Australia is to be able to get a core group of players so that out of that you might get one or two that may crack top 20 or go further.''

Canberra junior Alexandra Nancarrow is vying for an AIS scholarship this week.

The 16-year-old already holds an ACT Academy of Sport scholarship and is looking to take her training to the next level.

''It's been pretty exciting with all these coaches here,'' Nancarrow said. ''I'm starting with my career as a professional now, I have a doubles ranking and need a singles ranking now to get me on the ball.

''Over the next couple of months I'll be playing the two WA 25,000s.''