TENNIS – A series of exciting, high-level tennis tournaments are to be hosted by the kingdom over the next few months at the international, continental, and regional levels.
The Bahrain Tennis Federation (BTF) has announced a dozen competitions from this weekend until December, to be held at both the BTF courts in Isa Town as well as at the Public Security Officers Club in Gudaibiya.
Headlining these events are an ATP Challenger Tour tournament, a pair of competitions on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Men’s World Tennis Tour, and the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group V – all of which will be taking place in an action-packed November.
There will also be junior tournaments under the ITF and Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) banners, as well as Arab and Gulf championships at the elite men’s and juniors levels.
The BTF’s stacked calendar kicks off with two under-16 competitions under the ATF – the first of which gets underway on Saturday and continues until Friday next week. It will be followed by a second ATF tournament from October 11 to 17, both to be played at the BTF’s hard courts.
A GCC men’s championship featuring singles and doubles categories will then take place from October 19 to 23 at the BTF.
Next month, some of the world’s top international professional players will then gather in the kingdom for the first Bahrain Men’s ITF World Tennis Tour event, scheduled for November 3 to 9 at the Public Security Officers Club. It will be an M15 competition, offering $15,000 in total prize money.
The second Bahrain Men’s ITF World Tennis Tour event will then take place right after from November 10 to 16 at the same venue. It will be an M25 tournament, offering total prize money of $30,000.
The Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group V will then be played at the BTF courts from November 17 to 22. It will feature 15 senior men’s national teams, who will be battling for two promotional places to Group IV for next year.
The countries that will be playing in Bahrain are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Guam, Laos, Macau, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Northern Mariana Islands, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the UAE, Yemen, and hosts Bahrain.
The kingdom will then host its highest-level tennis tournament from November 23 to 29 with its ATP Challenger Tour event.
This category 50 competition will attract top pros from around the world, who will be vying for a share of the $60,000 in total prize money. Matches will be played at the Public Security Officers Club.
In November and December, three successive events will take place in the kingdom on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors, all at the BTF. The first two are J30 events from November 24 to 30 and from December 1 to 8, and then an ITF Juniors J60 competition will be held from December 8 to 14.
Rounding out the calendar to end the year, the Arab Elite Tennis Tournament will take place from December 17 to 23 at the Public Security Officers Club, and the Arab U16 Tennis Championship will be held from December 18 to 24 at the BTF.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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