KUCHING: Tennis in Sarawak should no longer be regarded as a luxury sport but instead be viewed as a sport for all as it is getting more popular here.
Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud praised Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) for being very proactive in promoting and developing tennis and the state government is very supportive of its efforts to develop the sport of tennis.
“SLTA has slowly made the ITF junior tennis tournaments to become quite important events in Asia and it had attracted a lot of youths from all over the world,” Taib said after handing over the challenge trophy for the 19th Chief Minister Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1) to organising chairman Dato Patrick Liew yesterday.
Taib also stressed that it is important for any organisation or association to have a good leader to bring it to greater heights.
“I believe the tennis tournaments are getting more support. By now, we are hosting eight international events which is quite an achievement for a newcomer like us but I think the main thing is that people should never look upon tennis anymore as a luxury game.
Anybody who got talent can come in and we will sponsor them to do it properly. In fact, we are sponsoring one boy (Mohd Assri Merzuki) to go to the US for professional training and that will probably help to upgrade the quality of our tennis for the future,” said Taib.
He said at a later stage Sarawak might invite some famous tennis stars to inspire the people and further upgrade tennis here. But he felt that by now, the exposure was enough to enable the state to start in a good way and that Assri would be a good asset to the state when he returns from his training in the US.
Taib said he supported any sport that can attract enough talent and create a group of people who nurture it.
“SLTA had been very successful in developing tennis and other sports association should emulate its achievements. We are lucky in the case of tennis because Dato Patrick is very keen on it and had spread up on certain level of activities. I think we can do the same thing in other areas if I can get some other volunteers coming in,” he added.
One such sport is football which is now being revamped and Taib is expecting to see ‘new muscles” coming up in football in three years’ time.
“SLTA appreciates the trust and confidence given by the chief minister. We are consistently organising international tennis events since 1999 – it’s a long period but all of us are enjoying it and passionate with what we are doing. The greatest satisfaction is that through these international events, Sarawak is now on the global tennis map,” said Liew.
He added that the last tournament here – the Junior ITF Asia/Oceania event, photos and news of the tournament was posted on the front page of the ITF Junior website which was viewed daily by thousands of people worldwide.
“We thank the chief minister for the RM80,000 grant and we will continue to perform the best,” said Liew.
Meanwhile, a total of 120 junior players including 51 girls from 32 countries will be competing in the 19th Chief Minister Cup (I) ITF Junior Tennis Championship (Grade 1) at SLTA Tennis Complex from Mar 13-18.
The qualifying matches will start tomorrow while the main draw will be played from next Tuesday. (www.theborneopost.com)
