Tennis ACT wants to use its first professional tournament in nine years to show it has a facility capable of hosting Davis Cup and Fed Cup ties.
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The redeveloped Canberra Tennis Centre at Lyneham will host the Canberra International - a $50,000 men's ATP Challenger and $50,000 ITF women's event - for the next three years.
This year's tournament will be held from November 1-9.
The Canberra Tennis Centre will also host four junior tour events, six Australian money tournaments, an ITF event, a senior ITF event and a men's and women's Pro Tour event on clay.
The main court at the Canberra Tennis Centre has capacity for 4000 spectators, more than enough to host either a Davis Cup or Fed Cup tie.
Tennis ACT chief executive Ross Triffit said the Canberra International would be the perfect opportunity to put forward the case for bringing the Australian men's or women's team to Canberra.
"These are a stepping stone for greater ambition around larger events," Triffit said.
"We are certainly well placed for Davis Cup and Fed Cup.
"We probably don't have any opportunity to host events of that calibre until February next year.
"The Challenger event will be a really good chance to showcase the venue and showcase Canberra's passion for the sport."
Canberra is also home to rising tennis star Nick Kyrgios, who took on Denis Istomin in the first round of the French Open on Monday night.
The Canberra International was previously an event on the elite WTA tour from 2001 to 2006, running in January as a lead-in to the Australian Open.
The ACT government has invested more than $7 million towards the redevelopment of the Canberra Tennis Centre.
ACT Sports Minister Shane Rattenbury said those improvements would lead to better crowds than when the tournament folded nine years ago.
"The facilities at the tennis centre have been significantly upgraded," Rattenbury said.
"It's a fantastic opportunity for Canberra in the sense that both as spectators, people will be able to see some very good quality tennis happening right on our doorstep. But also as players, whether it's up and coming juniors or some of our local players who are trying to advance in the tennis ranks.
The Canberra International is expected to attract players who are ranked between 100 and 300 in the world.
"It will effectively be one of the lead-in events to the Australian summer of tennis," Triffit said.
"The focus of these events is a range of tournaments that service Canberra and southern NSW and right up to that professional level.
"We have a number of budding professionals who will have the opportunity to compete at home for a change."
