WINNING WITH STYLE: Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) president Dato Patrick Liew (second right) and team members of the Chinese community team pose for a photo call during the prize giving cum closing ceremony of the 2012 Inter-community Tennis Tournament on Tuesday.
Unique tournament a huge success as Chinese community lift inaugural title
KUCHING: The inaugural 2012 Inter-community Tennis Tournament organised by the Sarawak Bumiputera Tennis Association (PTBS) on Sept 15-16 was a huge success with the Chinese community emerged as the champion of the competition.
The tournament is a team event with each team representing the various communities in Malaysia.
The Malay community on the other hand finished runners-up in the tournament while the Orang Ulu and Peninsular/ Sabah combination teams both finished in joint third-place.
A closing ceremony for the competition was held on Tuesday officiated by Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) president Dato Patrick Liew.
He congratulated all the teams and organiser for their fine effort in organising the unique tournament.
“This tournament is unique as we have participants from all around the country.
“Besides players from Sabah and Sarawak, we also have players all the way from Peninsular Malaysia,” commented tournament organising chairman Ismail Abdullah.
Ismail pointed out that the aim of the tournament was to strengthen ties between the various races here in the country.
His association plans to make the tournament an annual event albeit on a larger scale.
“Our aim to organise this tournament is to promote peace, harmony and unity. It was also held to commemorate Malaysia Day which is very meaningful to all of us,” he added.
Before the start of the tournament last Saturday, an exhibition match was played to mark its opening with talented juniors Muhammad Aiman Hamdan and Mark Leong playing against each other. Both players represented their respective communities.
For the record, Muhammad Aiman and Leong were participants of the recent ITF Asian U-14 tournament in which both players finish 26th and 28th in the tournament respectively.
The duo is among the state’s bright prospect in tennis.