RIYADH, 24 May — In a major tennis tournament organized by the Saudi Tennis Federation (STF), Ittihad Club won the finals of the senior league matches, beating Al-Washem Club (2-1) comfortably. Ittihad claimed the finals trophy and gold medal after trouncing Al-Washem to the second position in the prestigious Admiral Tennis Tournament witnessed by a capacity crowd at the local STF court here.
The third prize was shared by Shabab Club and Salem Club. Abdul Kareem Al-Babtain, director genral of Babtain Trading Company for Admiral household products and members of the STF board distributed prizes to the first three winners of the tournament, who played in two categories — seniors and juniors separately. Ittihad qualified for the finals after beating Al-Shabab (2-0), while Al-Washem qualified after winning over Al-Salam (2-1).
All these local clubs, however, performed brilliantly well showing once again that the Kingdom has the potential to show excellent tennis either on the home ground or on the foreign courts. Thanks to the STF, which has intensified a campaign to encourage more and more Saudi tennis players to participate in local, regional and international tennis tournaments. It has geared itself to promote the players, who are currently enrolled with local tennis clubs.
Speaking on the occasion of the prize distribution ceremony, Rasheed Ibn Abdulaziz Abu Rashed, STF’s secretary-general said that the local companies and the businessmen have been always helping the STF to organize such tennis tournaments. He thanked the private sector for sponsoring valuable prizes and commemorative shields, which were handed over to the winners and also to the organizers for their goodwill gestures.
The award giving ceremony was attended by a number of tennis enthusiasts including Abdul Karim Babtain, Mansour Al-Saadoun from Al-Zamil Co and Khaled Al-Zehban from Ghornatah Sports Company. During the function, Ittihad Club presented commemorative shields to a number of local journalists and to the representatives/owners of the local companies like Al-Babtain, Khaled Al-Dohaiban of Ghornatah company and Al-Saadoun.
In junior division tournament, Al Feha Club emerged winners followed by Komeat Club. The third prize was shared by Al Gara Club and Al-Amal Club. The best player prize was claimed by Omar Al-Thaqeb of Al-Washem Club whereas second prize was won by Baqer Al-Buklaif of Ittihad Club. All the matches played as part of the Admiral Tennis Tournament were supervised by world-known ref. Khaled Al-Osaimi, holder of an international white batch, together with another well-known name Jalal Faraj.
Referring to the fascination for tennis among Saudi youngsters, Taufique Yahya Moafa, coach of Saudi Arabia’s junior team and captain for Davis Cup; said that the Kingdom’s junior team will play in the United Kingdom in July this year. The junior teams under-12 and 14 will play the local tournament matches in the UK, a visit which will eventually help to promote Saudi-British relations.
The junior teams, under-12 and under-14, will also play in Egypt later this year. The STF is also organizing a tennis camp in Abha next month in which a total of 24 players will participate. The move to hold the camp is primarily intended to impart tennis training to the Saudi boys, who have been traditionally soccer lovers. A total of eight players will be selected from under-12, eight from under-10 and another eight from under-14.
