‘Media coverage of WJTC in Kuching among world’s best’
Posted on May 14, 2012, Monday
Dato Patrick Liew
KUCHING: The Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) has successfully organised another international tennis event – the Asia- Oceania Zone Final Qualifying for the World Junior Team Competition (WJTC) for Boys and Girls – at its tennis centre from May 7-12.
According to its president Dato Patrick Liew, this was another achievement for SLTA considering that it was the fourth international event to be organised within a short period of fi ve months.
“I have seen improvement in the organising and officiating of the competition for the past two weeks and the level of commitment by all those involved has also been raised,” said Liew who is also the organising chairman.
Liew said he had received almost zero complaint during the competition and the players and their captains were happy with the facilities and hospitality extended to them by the organiser.
“We even made special arrangements to bring them to enjoy seafood dinner at Top Spot (Taman Kereta) for which the players and captains are also very happy with,” he said, adding that SLTA would make it a point to include this arrangement in future tournaments.
“ T h e ITF representatives Ajay Pathak (for Boys) and Suresh Menon (for Girls) are also very happy with the smooth running of the competitions, with some help from the good weather to make it a successful event,” he added.
However, the president was quick to point out that there was room for improvement especially on the umpiring and changing room facility.
“We need to get more qualified officials to officiate the matches and we have plans to build changing rooms for both sexes and hopefully we can get it going by end of this year,” said Liew.
He said SLTA has also indicated to ITF that it would want to continue hosting this event annually and would apply to host it again next year.
“ITF is also pleased with the opening ceremonies for the event and they have posted the group pictures for the opening on their website.
Our committee member Dr Wee Thian Yew, who is also the SLTA vice president, has also done a great job by posting the daily action pictures of the players on SLTA website and many national tennis associations are requesting to download the pictures for their websites,” informed Liew.
He said it was a pleasure to host team competitions like the WJTC because it was easier to manage as the captains look after their players who are well disciplined. “The grant of about RM150,000 from ITF was also helpful.
That helped us absorb about 80 to 85 per cent of the expenses in running the competitions. We are also grateful to local sponsors who sponsored the officials’ attire and Danawa Resources for sponsoring wi-fi services,” said Liew. “Most importantly, I would like to thank the local media for their comprehensive coverage on the event.
Ajay has affirmed that our media coverage is the world’s best among all the countries he has travelled to and this is something that I feel proud of,” he said.
SLTA will take a break until Sept ember where the next international event lined up is the 8th ATF Asian Under-14 Series.
“In between this, we are also organising the Kuching Closed at the end of this month and the Inter- Division and Sarawak Closed from June 15-22,” Liew revealed.
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