Plan for 4 tournaments over CNY period

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Liew (centre) showing the 2015 SLTA calendar as vice president Dr Wee Thian Yew (seated, second left) and other committee members look on.

KUCHING: The Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) will kick-start its calendar for next year with a Chinese flavour on Feb 27 with four international tennis competitions.

They are the ITF Pre-Qualifying Final Event Asia Oceania World Team Championship for Boys, ITF Pre-Qualifying Final Event Asia Oceania World Team Championship for Girls, ITF Pre-Qualifying Final Event Asia Oceania Junior Davis Cup and ITF Pre-Qualifying Final Event Asia Oceania Junior Fed Cup.

The four events are scheduled from Feb 26 to Mar 9.

SLTA president Dato Patrick Liew said yesterday that the association regarded the organising of the above events as a special challenge since it is held starting on the ninth day of the Chinese New Year.

“As we are celebrating the Chinese New Year at the same time, we are going to make it a very memorable occasion for our foreign participants where we will be having a lion dance performance during the opening ceremony,” Liew told reporters after chairing an exco meeting at SLTA Tennis Centre yesterday.

Saying that the competitions will be run until the Chap Goh Mei (15th day of CNY), Liew added there are also plans to invite the players, coaches and parents to visit the ‘Open House’ of the Chi-nese committee members including himself.

He expressed full confidence that all four events will be run smoothly as the organising committee is very experienced and committed.

“We are also grooming former and current tennis players as new committee members in preparing for future challenges,” he added.

“There will be 44 teams coming for the four back-to-back international ITF competitions and we will be given a grant of RM210,000 by International Tennis Federation to ease organising costs,” said Liew.

For 2015, Liew said SLTA will be hosting seven international competitions and two state meets.

The other international events are the 25th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (I) ITF Junior Circuit (Grade 1) fro Mar 17-22, the 11th ATF Asian 14 and Under Series from Sept 2-6 and the 26th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (II) ITF Junior Circuit (Grade 3) from Oct 6-11.

“Apart from hosting the international events, SLTA will be hosting the Inter-Division and Sarawak Closed from Mar 24-29 and the year-ending Sarawak Junor Master from Dec 11-13,” said Liew.

Liew, also president of Kuching Division Lawn Tennis Association, said KDLTA will be organising the Kuching Closed sometime in March.

He said Kuching will continue to hold Monthly Medal competitions as part of the junior tennis de-velopment programme.

“I would like to urge all divisional affiliates to organise their respective Open to select their best players for the Inter- Division and Sarawak Closed before middle of March. He said SLTA is also bidding for the host job for the ITF US$15,000 Men’s Futures next year but waiting for confirmation from the Philippines Tennis Association.

“To host the ITF US$15,000 Men’s Futures, you need to organise two legs and we are working together with the Philippines to organise the first leg in Manila and for us to organise the second leg in Ku-ching,” he explained.

He said SLTA is keeping its options open to stage other international competitions in case other host countries withdraw.