The ACT Women in Sport and Leadership Brunch on Thursday morning at Canberra Tennis Centre will feature French Open mixed doubles champion Casey Dellacqua as a guest speaker.

Since her tennis retirement in 2018 Dellacqua has relished family life with her partner and three kids, she became a commentator, and in her current role as the women and girls lead with Tennis NSW, she has worked hard to further opportunities for females at all levels, not just on the court but in tennis governance.

Alongside Tennis ACT, Dellacqua is keen to collaborate to continue to make an impact for women and girls in tennis, and in the capital where she has enjoyed playing "hundreds of times" and spent her "formative years" at the Australian Institute of Sport.

"Canberra has a special place in my heart because it was where I wound up my career when I played my last ever match as a professional, representing Australia in the Fed Cup," Dellacqua said.

"So I've got very fond memories and I'm really looking forward to getting back there and connecting with people there."

After Barty's Australian Open triumph last summer, Dellacqua was the first person the Queenslander embraced.

The pair had been on a special journey together, as former doubles partners when Barty was just a teen, before she gave tennis away for a cricketing career, and returned to become a three-time grand slam champion.

Barty could have been lost to tennis forever when she walked away citing the desire to have a break from the intense travel and training schedule as a pro. Luckily she returned and eventually found her career-best form to be ranked world No. 1 today.

Dellacqua said there is no issue with female participation in tennis, but retention of adolescent girls is "a priority", and a common hurdle faced across all sports.

The key for Dellacqua is to give girls a greater connection to their clubs by fostering more team environments with friends and a "community feel", offering pathways into club and tennis governance, and promoting coaching opportunities to "give back" to the next generation.

"What I'd love to see is more women and girls on club committees, to understand the governance of our sport, and then start to look to be presidents," Dellacqua said.

"I think the percentage of women club presidents at the moment across Australia is only 26 per cent and we need women in those leadership roles. Ultimately, hopefully, that filters up to getting more women on boards across our organisations."

Dellacqua knows better than most the importance of this area of women in sport development and hopes she can inspire others to consider all that tennis has to offer.

"That's pretty much why I stayed in the sport," she said.

"It would have been easy to walk away but my mum and my nan were volunteers down at the local club so I would spend my weekends there.

"It kept me in the game that I love."

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