MEDIA Prima Berhad personalities Adriana Aris, Abu Bakar Atan and Seelan Paul are raring to do their part for a good cause at the CEO and Celebrity Charity Tennis tournament at the National Tennis Centre in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
Adriana, 41, NT7's news operations and creative marketing manager, said she felt compelled to take part in the event despite usually not having much time for the sport due to her busy daily schedule.
"I am more of a recreational player and usually would not be interested in joining tournaments but playing tennis for charity really struck a chord with me," said Adriana, who anchors the channel's 7 edition news.
Seelan, Media Prima Radio Networks' chief executive officer, said he was looking forward to enjoying the game and making new friends.
"This will be my fourth time playing in the tournament and I can say I have always enjoyed the friendly atmosphere at the event,"said the 38-year-old, who is also Media Prima Television Networks chief strategy officer.
TV3's sports personality Abu Bakar Atan, who in his formative years in the sport sparred with former national players V. Selvam and R. Ramachandran in his hometown of Port Dickson, will arguably provide the strongest challenge for the title from the Media Prima trio.
Abu Bakar, 50, said he will be wielding his trusty racquet given to him by another former national player, Adam Malik, after his commendable run to the quarter-finals of the Salem Open ATP Tour championships in Kuala Lumpur in 1994.
"Despite it being quite old now, it has been my favourite racquet through the years and I will be depending on it once again this week," said Abu Bakar, who is Primeworks sports division head of production.
After first being held in 2008, the CEO and Celebrity Charity Tennis is making a return after a one-year lapse.
Players will play five doubles matches each with different partners and those who accumulate the most points will be declared the winners.
Each player will have to contribute a minimum of RM1,000 as participation fee while companies wanting to become corporate donors must purse RM5,000 to have their logos in the tournament's publicity materials.- www.nst.com.my
