A landmark legal case, brought on after Beechworth Lawn Tennis Club missed out on funding in the sports rorts saga, began on Friday in the Federal Court.
The club was knocked back for $500,000 for new courts from the controversial community sports grant program, despite receiving a merit score of 78 out of 100.
Legal action has been launched against the Australian Sports Commission and others.
The case will return to court in the future after only a brief hearing took place in the Federal Court on Friday, with no future date set.
Beechworth Lawn Tennis Club was represented by Maurice Blackburn principal Josh Bornstein, who said lawyers wanted the Federal Court to overturn ASC's decision to reject the funding application, and issue an order for it to be reconsidered.
He has argued the Australian Sports Commission is required to award grants independent from government and political considerations.
"The ASC abandoned its proper role and took direction from the Prime Minister's office and the Sports Minister to allocate grants in seats to help re-elect LNP politicians," he said.
"While the corruption of the sports grant process has been highlighted in both the Parliament and the media, those involved have not been held to account."
Former Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie has denied any wrongdoing in allocating the grants, saying she makes "no apology for applying ministerial discretion to ensure fairness across funded projects".
The tennis club's legal case will also challenge the decision to give a grant to the Wangaratta Clay Target Club after it was revealed Senator McKenzie was a member.
Club president Andy Carr said Beechworth was badly in need of new facilities, but believed hard work to create an application was thwarted for political purposes.
"All we want is a fair process that assesses our application and all applications on merit - there is no question if a merit-based process had applied our club would have qualified for funding," he said.
