275 players and counting

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Liew (second right) gives the thumbs-up for the event with (from left) Ann Liew, Douglas and Chin at the press conference yesterday.

KUCHING: The Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association are extremely pleased with the overwhelming response to the 31st Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (1) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1) that will be held at SLTA Tennis Centre from March 13 to 18.

SLTA president Dato Patrick Liew, who is the event’s organising chairman, said yesterday that entries from 154 boys and 121 girls from 49 countries have been received so far.

“This is a very prestigious championship because firstly the participants are all very highly ranked in the ITF junior rankings and secondly, Kuching (Malaysia) and Bangkok (Thailand) are the only two cities and countries in Asia that are hosting the Grade 1 championship.

“Based on our experience in organising previous editions, we are never short of 120 players from at least 25 countries taking part in this championship,” he said in a press conference at SLTA Tennis Centre.

According to Liew, many of the players are repeat participants and they are aiming to collect the vital ranking points in this event to qualify them for the Junior Grand Slam competitions.

“The top ranked boy is ITF No. 19 Ray Ho from Taiwan while the top ranked girl is ITF No. 11 from Japan Naho Sato.

“Christian Didier Chin from Sabah is our top ranked player in the boys main draw. The ITF No. 46 has improved tremendously and had recently played in the Australian Junior Grand Slam. Christian is also the second Malaysian player after Suresh Menon to have played in a Junior Grand Slam,” he noted.

Most of the Malaysians are in the alternates list and they include Sarawakians Jimmy Liong Kai Long, Muhammad Aiman Hamdan and Lydia Liong Tng Eng.

As usual, Liew is expecting many withdrawals because those in the alternates list will have little or no chance to play in this prestigious championship.

Only the top ITF 147 are accepted in the boys main draw and top ITF 339 in the girls main draw while 48 players are engaged in the qualifying round of both categories.

“We will decide on the giving out of wild cards later,” he said.

The participating are Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Latvia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Mariana, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Vietnam and host Malaysia.

Japan has the biggest number of 15 players, followed by nine from Australia and eight each from Malaysia, Russia and Thailand.

After the 31st Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup (1) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1), Liew said SLTA will be playing host to the Asia-Oceania Qualifying for the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup competitions in April.

He added that 16 countries each will will be competing in the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup qualifying.

Also present were SLTA deputy president Douglas Telajan who is the tournament director, tournament secretary Bernard Chin and organising committee member Ann Liew Mei Ing.