SLTA to host highest prize money Wheel Chair Tennis tournament

The Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) has three International Wheel Chair Tennis Tournament Futures and an Asia Region World Cup Qualifying Tournament in their calendar for the month of February.

At a media briefing on the 18^th of February 2016 at Ramada Hotel, Colombo, the SLTA announced their plans for the 9^th Sri Lanka Open Wheelchair tennis tournament, 7^th SSC Open Wheelchair tennis tournament and World Cup Regional Qualifiers – Asia, while highlighting the progress made by the Sri Lankan players at the 5^th Negombo Open Wheelchair tennis tournament which concluded on the 17^th of February.

The Presidents of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association, Negombo Tennis Club and Sinhalese Sports Club’s Tennis House graced this occasion along with the heads of the sponsoring companies to address the media and the participating wheel chair tennis players from Sri Lanka and the International arena about the tournaments.

Amongst the international participants present from countries such as South Korea, France, Russia, India, South Africa, Japan, Spain, Hungary, Malaysia and China were high ranking players of wheel chair tennis in World ranking 20s. By hosting events of this scale, SLTA hopes to give more exposure to the Sri Lankan players who are ranked among the 100s to further enhance their performance.

The future tournaments scheduled would be US$2500 prize money tournaments in Sri Lanka Tennis and significant wheelchair tennis tournaments on the International Tennis Federation NEC series on the calendar. It is to be noted that the BNP Paribas World Team Cup Regional Qualification event is a yearly event sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Sri Lanka has the honour of hosting these matches this year, which will be held at SLTA courts from the 27^th of February. This event will be one of the four Regional Qualifiers that are being held between February and March 2016 – all of which count towards the BNP Paribas World Team Cup – the wheelchair tennis equivalent to the Davis Cup and Fed Cup events. The Sri Lankan Women’s team is also due to participate.

Wheel Chair Tennis Chairman Brigadier Gamage, Mr. P.S. Kumara and Secretary WCT committee Col. Shiran Abeysekera says “We are delighted to be hosting the highest prize money Wheel Chair Tennis Championship here in Sri Lanka and are particularly proud that the ITF endorsed the Sri Lanka Open tournament.” They further expressed their delight to host players from over 25 countries and that the committee has endeavoured to provide the required facilities to the players and the best hospitality.

Speaking to the media, the President of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association, Mr. Iqbal Bil Isaack echoed the statements made by the organising committee by stating that the SLTA is proud to host the tournaments with contingents from around the world with nearly 50 players who will be participating. Mr. Issack also announced that Sri Lanka performed well at the recently concluded Negombo Open tournament and were runners up in the Men’s Doubles. He further mentioned that the Sri Lanka Wheel Chair Tennis Men’s team has already qualified for the BNP Paribas World Cup Tournament to be held in Japan in May 2016 and that opportunities have been made available for the team to play in tournaments in Czechoslovakia and France before the World Cup. The President also declared that CICT, Lanka Tiles, Dimo and Perera & Sons would sponsor the tournaments to be held in Sri Lanka.

The President of the Tennis house of the Sinhalese Sports Club thanked the sponsors for their invaluable support towards Sri Lanka Tennis and wished the participants success.

Vice President of SLTA Prof. Mohan Munasinghe addressed the media regarding the efforts taken by SLTA to expand tennis amongst the differently abled and congratulated the players on justifying the confidence placed on them by the committee. He also voiced the importance of giving publicity to the Wheel Chair Tennis Players of Sri Lanka who have higher ranks than the regular team.

The General Manager of the main sponsor of wheel chair tennis in Sri Lanka – Colombo International Container Terminal Ltd. (CICT) expressed the interest of his firm to invest more in society by promoting tennis amongst the differently abled and especially to proliferate the number of players by spreading the game to the outstation regions such as the North, East and South.

Mr. Shirley Mahendran, the head of Lanka tiles -sponsor for the Negombo Open Tournament –said that the company would cooperate in broadening the horizons of wheelchair tennis and appreciated the improvements made in the tournaments throughout the years.

The Co-Sponsors for the SSC tournaments Perera and Sons and Dimo presented their sponsorship at the event.

Roland Nemeth, a participant from Hungary with a current singles ranking of 60, briefly discussed his experience at the tournaments organised, by saying that they were fulfilling experiences and well organised tournaments.

The Sri Lanka Open tournament will be held from the 19^th to 21^st February at the SLTA courts, SSC Open  will be held from 23^rd to 25^th February at SSC and the World Cup Regional Team Qualifiers will be held at SLTA courts from 27^th February to the 1^st of March.