Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) is ready to welcome the world’s rising young tennis stars for the upcoming Bahrain ITF Futures 2018.
The prestigious tournament is being held under the patronage of His Majesty the King’s representative for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa. It is supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs and is sponsored by E K Kanoo and Bahrain Duty Free.
It is set to feature singles and doubles action for both men and women, as part of the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) Men’s and Women’s Circuits.
A total prize fund of a staggering $30,000 has been set for both competitions.
Tournament Director Ali Khonji said: “All our preparations are complete. Our club facilities are ready and the tournament referee along with all the chair umpires are scheduled to arrive from overseas within the day.
“Everything is looking good. We expect to watch a lot of great tennis in the days ahead and we look forward to putting on a fantastic show in Bahrain.”
Players from more than 50 nations have registered to compete in this year’s event. Many have already arrived in the kingdom and will be signing in at the BTC premises in Juffair today. The sign-in is scheduled for 4pm.
Play in both the men’s and women’s singles and doubles begin on Monday, after qualifying tomorrow and Sunday.
The qualifying draw is also scheduled for today at 6pm, following the signing-in formalities. Based on the number of entrants, the schedule of the qualifiers will determined, as well as the number of spots that will be up for the taking in both the Men’s and Women’s Main Draws.
The top-ranked men’s players who are registered to play in this year’s Bahrain ITF Futures include Daniel Altmaier of Germany (ranked 297th in the world), Marsel Ilhan of Turkey (ranked 320th), Michal Konecny of the Czech Republic (ranked 475th) and Jelle Sels of the Netherlands (ranked 554th).
Top women players include Quirine Lemoine of the Netherlands (ranked 315th), Ana Veselinovic of Montenegro (ranked 389th), Nastka Kolar of Slovenia (ranked 413th) and Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia (ranked 445th).
“The level of the players is quite high this year, both for the men and the women,” Khonji said. “There are several who are returning, having played here in the past, and that is very encouraging because it shows that they like what we do here and how we run our tournament.
“Many of the players are really developing to become among the best in the world and we expect to see them in the future competing in the higher-grade tournaments.”
Six Bahraini players will be playing in either the main draw as wild cards or in the qualifying draw. They are Yousef Qaed, Ahmed Janahi, Hamad Abdula’al, Hasan Al Qattan, Elyas Abdulredha and Ammar Al Shaikh.
The same is for the women, with three Bahraini hopefuls – Nazli Nader Redha, Safa Safar and Maya Bseisu.
For more information, contact BTC on +973-17729561 or e-mail bahrain.tennisclub@gmail.com.
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