JUNIOR tennis players all over the country will join the 4th Globe CitiGreen Junior Tennis Cup starting today at three venues in Cebu.
The winners in every division will be included in the CitiGreen Junior Tennis Team which will compete in the Penang Junior International Tennis Championship in Malaysia on Nov. 29 to Dec. 3, the Perlis Milo International Junior Tennis Championship on Dec. 4 to 8 also in Malaysia and the Hat Yai-100 Plus International Junior Tennis Championships in Thailand on Dec. 9 to 12.
Daisy Jade Abangan, the CitiGreen operation officer, said in a press conference that it’s the second time that there will be an international competition for the winners in this tournament.
“The first year, we only competed in Thailand and we added two more internationals competition this year because of the good showing by the juniors last year. And also, they need this for exposure,” she said.
The organizers will shoulder all expenses except the plane tickets of the players for Malaysia and Thailand.
“In Thailand, we got 18 trophies overall,” said CitiGreen’s marketing officer Shan Osorio.
Tournament director Jun Tabura said that they have made a change this year by implementing a single-entry rule, meaning every player can only join in one category.
The categories are the boys’ and girl’s 12-Under, 14-Under, 16-Under and 18-Under, and unisex division for the 8-Under and 10-Under.
“We did the single-entry format so that the tournament will not be dominated only by few players. We will have different winners. We also copied the single-entry format from the Thailand last year,” said Tabura.
Mario Craiz, the event’s head of official, said that despite the single-entry rule, they were surprised with the turnout of 233 participants, which is double the expected 100 participants.
The players are from Manila, Cavite, Pangasina, Ormoc, Leyte, Iloilo, Bohol, Cebu, Dumaguete, Bais City, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Dipolog, Sultan Kudarat, Surigao, Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, Zamboanga, Ozamis, Iligan and Butuan.
The CitiGreen Junior Tennis Cup is sanctioned by Unified Tennis Philippines and will will wrap up on Tuesday. It will be played at the CitiGreen Tennis Resort, the Alta Vista Golf and Country Club and Pardo Tennis Club.