Adam Moundir of Switzerland and Boris Butulija of Serbia have been named as the top two seeds in Qualifying for the Men’s Singles tournament of the Bahrain ITF World Tennis Tour 2019 at Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC).
BTC hosted the draw for the Qualifying competition yesterday at its premises in Juffair. International Tennis Federation (ITF) Supervisor and Tournament Referee Dr Ashraf Hamouda administered the proceedings in the presence of BTC Honorary President Dr Ali Fakhro, BTC President Khamis Al Muqla, Organising Committee members and some players.
Al Muqla expressed a warm welcome message to the overseas players who have come to Bahrain for the tournament. He wished all the competitors the best results and added that he is looking forward to enjoying plenty of great, top-class tennis.
A total of 18 matches are scheduled to be played today as 22 players vie for just six slots in the competition proper.
Moundir (423rd on the ITF Rankings) and Butulija (ranked 1,011th) have both been given byes for the first round of play, and need to win just one match today to make it to the Main Draw.
Other players in Qualifying seeded third through 12th, respectively, are Keivon Tabrizi of Switzerland, Razvan Marius Codescu of Romania, Shahbaaz Khan of India, Karlo Cubelic of Germany, Vitaliy Sachko of Ukraine, Brian Bencic of Switzerland, Worovin Kumthonkittikul of Thailand, Preston Brown of the US, Jeson Patrombon from the Philippines, and Mihnea Lorin Stefan of Romania.
Matches in the morning session are scheduled to be held from 11am at the BTC hard courts. The afternoon’s action begins not before 4pm. All are welcome to attend and cheer for the players. Entrance is free.
Today’s Qualifying will complete the 32-player field in the Men’s Singles, which gets underway tomorrow.
There are also two Bahrainis among the 22 qualifying hopefuls, namely Hamad Abdula’al and Kareem Abdulredha. They hope to join their countrymen Ali Dawani, Eliyas Abdulredha and Hassan Abdulredha, who are already in the Men’s Singles Main Draw as Wild Cards.
The Bahrain ITF World Tennis Tour 2019 is a part of the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) Men’s Calendar, and it offers an attractive prize purse of $15,000.
It is being held under the patronage of His Majesty the King for Charity Works and Youth Affairs representative, Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
The tournament sponsors are Bahrain Duty Free and E K Kanoo.