Malaysian tennis players may not be anywhere near the level of their counterparts from Australia, China, Japan and South Korea but are expected to be as competitive in a few years time.
According to Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) president Dato Patrick Liew, Malaysia, through the Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM), are trying very hard to groom potential players and uplift their standard.
“Under the LTAM development programme, a few selected players are sent overseas like Spain and the US to train in tennis academies. They are still new and in the development stage but I do believe that in a few years time, they can reach the level that we expected,” said Liew.
He was responding to a question on where Malaysian players stand now in term of standard during a press conference on the Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying Event for the ITF World Junior Team Championship at his office yesterday.
“I am expecting Australia to be the favourites to make it to the top four of this qualifying event because they are very serious in tennis and have been carrying out their development programme for a long time and producing very good players,” he said.
Liew also predicted China to make the grade because most of the Chinese players are now being trained overseas and those at home are trained by full-time professional coaches.
Liew said 16 boys and 16 girls teams will be vying for four spots in the World Junior Team Championship to be played in Prostejov, Czech Republic in July.
For the boys competition that will be held at SLTA centre from May 2 to 7, the participating countries are Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, host Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Syria and Yemen.
The countries involved in the girls competition from May 9 to 14 are Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Kazakhstan.
“This is a team event with two singles and one doubles to be played in each match and we are honoured to be entrusted by International Tennis Federation (ITF) to host it again in Kuching,” said Liew.
“The teams will play for position 1 to 16 and the players will get to play for seven days to decide whether they can qualify for the competition next year.”
Only the top 13 teams qualify for next year’s competition while the remaining three spots will awarded to the countries who won in the pre-qualifying event.
Liew said ITF had given SLTA a total grant of RM138,880 to run the two back-to-back competitions.
“This competition will give our players a very good exposure as they get the chance to play against players from different countries and learn from the opponents.”
“This will be an interesting event to watch because team captains are allowed to be on court to lend support and coach the players,” said Liew.
He said to ensure that the event had the best organisation and officials, ITF had appointed experienced Australian Wayne Mckewen as tournament referee and Suresh Menon of Malaysia as its representative for the boys competition.
As for the girls event, the tournament referee is Gary Au-Yeung from Hong Kong while the ITF representative is Patrick O’Rouke from New Zealand.
Merdeka Palace and Suites Hotel is the official hotel while Wilson is the official ball sponsor and Lea Sports Centre the official attire sponsor. - source: Borneo Post; April 22/ 2011
