JEDDAH, 27 November 2006 — Portuguese Martin Truweva clinched the singles title and the Turkish pair of Tuna Altuna and Ugur Atalay took the doubles crown on Friday at the close of the Mobily International 6th & 7th Youth Tennis Championship at the Riyadh Intercontinental Hotel courts here.
Truweva beat Polish Jurzeen Janos in straight sets in the final to close out a successful campaign in the under-18 tournament that brought together some of the best players from 18 countries.
In the doubles final, also a best-of-three affair, Altuna and Atalay went the distance before dispatching the mixed tandem of Indian Venkat Iyer and American David Nguyen 6-7 (4), 6-3-7-5).
The awards ceremony took place after the final match with Saud Al-Abdulaziz, deputy for general president for sports affairs at the General Presidency of Youth Welfare, and Mobily Public Relations Director Homoud Al-Ghibaini, presenting the prizes.
The Saudi tandem of Zaki Al-Abdullah and Abdulmalek Burasais failed to advance past the first round while the Saudi-Kuwaiti pair Tamer Antabi and Hassan Al-Mousa reached the second round where tthey were were beaten by Altuna and Atalay 6-4, 6-0.
Salman Al-Humoud and Sameer Basri, the second Saudi team to reach the second round, suffered the same fate beaten 6-1, 6-0 by the Egyptian duo Mohammed Kassem and Zeyad Montasser.
Faisal Abanmaee and Mousa Al-Mubarak posted the best finish by the hosts, reaching the semifinals where they eventually got beat by the losing finalists 6-0, 6-1.
Altun and Talay defeated Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz and Thomas Marel Mrozowsk 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals.
“Thank God the championship was successful throughout the 14 days,” enthused Al-Ghibaini, adding major sponsor Mobily has offered the players free chips so they could communicate here and with their families abroad. The organizing committee at the Saudi Tennis Federation presented Mobily a shield for sponsoring this event.
This championship, which ran under the auspices of the Saudi Tennis Federation, is one of the best tennis events held in the Kingdom mainly due to the large numbers of countries and players who participated, according to Al-Ghibaini.
The 18 countries represented by 64 players in the tournament were United States, Canada, Portugal, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Yemen, Venezuela, Cyprus, India, Kuwait, Ghana, Iran, Sri Lanka, Poland, United Emirates, Bahrain and host Saudi Arabia.
