Juniors get into the tennis act

SINGAPORE — While the stars slug it out in the main arena, the Kallang Tennis Centre has been a hive of activity, this week hosting the South-east Asian (SEA) Junior Tournament, a Hopman-Cup style event for boys and girls across three different age groups: Under-12, U-14 and U-16.

Co-organised by Sport Singapore (SportSG) and the Singapore Tennis Association (STA), the tournament drew a total of 64 players from six nations around the region.

Toh Boon Yi, SportSG’s chief of strategic development and marketing group, said the event is designed to help develop tennis here and in the region, leveraging on the BNP Paribas WTA Finals being held here.

“We hope this will contribute to the growth of tennis in South-east Asia and create another platform for players, coaches and officials to interact,” said Toh, with SportSG providing the funding while STA provides the technical support.

Veteran tennis administrator Gilbert Ng is the competition manager and he sees the value of holding this event alongside the WTA Finals. “What SportSG and STA have done is fantastic by inviting the SEA nations and players from around the region to come and play matches and make new friends. At the same time, they can watch the top stars in action,” said Ng. “The only setback is the rain over the last two days, but everyone is co-operative so far and they totally understand the weather conditions.”

Rain has truncated matches to a single-set race to eight points, with a seven-point tiebreak if the score is tied at 7-7.

Thailand and the Philippines are leading the U-12 competition, with Singapore picking up a sole win from four ties. In the U-14s, Malaysia is proving the team to beat with Singapore seeing off Vietnam yesterday for their first victory in three ties. Singapore have three wins in the U-16, although they fell to Indonesia yesterday.

Play resumes tomorrow with Singapore facing Philippines in the U-12 and U-14 . EMMANUEL PHUA