KUCHING: The top 40 players of the world tennis junior circuit will be among the 215 players from 40 countries who will vie for the 33rd Sarawak Chief Minister’s Cup title here.
An international J1 category event and part of the newly rebranded ITF World Tennis Tour, the tournament’s main draw players and the players who qualified from the qualifying rounds will battle it out from March 12 to 17 at the SLTA tennis complex on Jalan Crockshank, here.
The qualifying rounds will begin at the same venue on March 10
Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) president Datuk Patrick Liew disclosed this at a press conference held at the SLTA office here yesterday.
“The Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Abdul Rahman Zohari will be handing over the cup to the organisers at 10am on March 7 at Wisma Bapa Malaysia and he will also present the winner of the tournament with the cup after the finals,” said Liew.
“We have had a good run organising this event over the last 32 editions and we are thankful that all of our Chief Ministers have been supportive of it and now our current Chief Minister is no different,” added Liew.
“SLTA will continue to hold all the international events we have been hosting all these years and we may also look to adding to our roster by bidding for more events in the coming months and years,” Liew said.
“In fact many of the current crop of Grand Slam tennis players have played here a few times before and I can say that the international coaches and players like to come to the Kuching tournaments because of our good reputation,” the SLTA president continued.
The prestigious tournament is a rarity in the region as apart from Kuching in Malaysia only Thailand hosts similar events in the South East Asian zone.
Five Sarawakians, namely Lydia Liong Tng En, Tan Lin Xin, Elysia Wan, Elsa Wan and Jimmy Liong Kai Long will be fighting for a spot in the event’s main draw through the qualifying rounds.
“Apart from the players and coaches, some parents will also be coming along for the event and we typically see a tourist spending of approximately RM2 million ringgit from the foreign arrivals here. So it is also an event contributing to sports tourism in Sarawak,” enthused Liew.
An affiliated member of the Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia, Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association will be hosting the J3 category of the World Junior Tour in September this year, in a break with tradition to avoid the monsoon season.
Also present at the press conference were tournament director Douglas Telajan, tournament secretary Bernard Chin and tournament treasurer Kho Siak Koi.
