Burma to host Asian Tennis championship

Wednesday, 26 January 2011 20:18 Tun Tun

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The 4-day Asian Tennis Championship tournament for under-14 players, sponsored by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), will be held starting Saturday in Rangoon.

The tournament will be held at the Theinbyu tennis courts from January 29 to February 1, the third such event held in Burma by the ITF.

The tournament is free and open to the public. It will begin at 8:30 a.m.

‘The International Tennis Federation provides the organization and will bear expenses for the tournament and the Myanmar Tennis Federation will also sponsor it’, Myanmar Tennis Federation Director Maung Maung Lay told Mizzima. A similar tournament will be held in Indonesia in March.

Countries expected to participate include Burma, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan and Vietnam.

Five male and five female tennis players from Burma will compete in the tournament, which includes four events.

‘The events are singles and doubles for both male and female players’, Maung Maung Lay said.

The Burmese players are all students selected from Rangoon, Mandalay, Pegu and Irrawaddy divisions. Maung Maung Lay said he has arranged that the players can attend school and also play tennis.

‘In the morning they do physical exercise training and then play tennis in the evening’, he said. Sixteen players are preparing for the Southeast Asia Games tennis events, he said.

Similar tournaments were held in Burma in 2004 and 2006. Burma won four gold medals in the events.

The Myanmar Tennis Federation was established in 1950, and its heyday was between 1969 and 1975 when the Burmese team won gold medals in many events.

‘We were most successful at that time,’ said a player. ‘We were less successful before and after. We have yet to achieve again this peak period of 1969-75. At that time, we won almost all events’, he said.