120 juniors flocking to Kuching for Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup

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Liew (centre) with Douglas (right) and Chin at SLTA Tennis Centre yesterday.

Liew (centre) with Douglas (right) and Chin at SLTA Tennis Centre yesterday.

KUCHING: Some 120 players from 26 countries have been accepted for the 28th Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (II) ITF Junior Circuit (Grade 3) at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) Tennis Centre here from Oct 11-16.

As usual, organising chairman Dato Patrick Liew is expecting many late withdrawals as players who have earlier registered may change their minds after rating their odds of winning.

“For the main draw, many top ranked players will look at the other participants to see whether they have chances of winning. Others may withdraw due to the high expenses or air ticket problem,” Liew, who is SLTA president, told reporters at SLTA Tennis Centre yesterday.

Liew said there were 69 boys and 51 girls who have registered for the final competition hosted by SLTA for the year. With Liew were tournament director cum vice president Douglas Telajan and secretary Bernard Chin.

The countries are Australia, China, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Russia, Ukraine and the US.

Malaysia is fielding the biggest team of 12 boys and six girls, followed by Sweden with 16 players, India with 12 players, Taiwan with 11 players and Japan with nine players.

Liew was pleased to note that the championship had attracted players in the top 100 rankings, with ITF No. 176 Rimpei Kawakami of Japan in the boys’ main draw and Lee Yang of Taiwan, ITF No. 83, in the girls’ main draw.

“It would take RM80,000 to RM100,000 to organise this event as hospitality will be provided to players in the main draw. Elsewhere in Australia, it will cost between RM100,000 and RM150,000 to organise it,” said Liew who added that many countries prefered to organise Grade 4 and 5 events as costs are lower.