Ajay Pathak
“For the past few years, at least three teams from Asia finished in the top eight unlike before you can only see them finishing in 13th or 15th positions,” he said.
However, Ajay said there were problems that hindered the growth of girl’s juniors such as lack of indoor facilities, conservativeness, lack of high calibre female coaches and that Asian girls shy away from the sun as well as social related issues.
“As far as the girls are concerned, Asia is more conservative including Malaysia, Indonesia and India. In West Asian countries like Qatar, Iran and Kuwait, you don’t see many female players or totally none at all,” said Ajay who is pleased to see the emergence of girls players in China, Japan and South Korea.
On the SLTA Tennis Centre as the competition venue, Ajay noted there were changes every year when he comes to Kuching to supervise ITF events.
“There were new improvements being made and the upkeep of facilities was good and Kuching has become a permanent venue for WJTC. There are 11 courts now and I understand five more courts and a hostel for players and team officials are being planned,” he added.
Ajay commended SLTA president Patrick Liew and his committee for a job well done and that the centre is slowly becoming a world class tennis facility.
He was also pleased with Liew for personally taking care of the problems and ensuring that the events are ran smoothly and efficiently.
“We also appreciate the local media for the comprehensive coverage done on a daily basis and ITF is very impressed with the newspaper clippings and reports that we sent after each event,” said Ajay.
“The media coverage here is probably the best because you don’t see it in any part of the world where such events are being held,” added the ITF representative.
Liew said SLTA was honoured to be given the nod to host the event for the fourth time.
“With the strong support from Ajay and ITF, we would like to continue hosting this event annually. This event will serve as an eye-opener to local coaches and players and we are looking to producing more world class juniors from this competition,” he said.