The press conference for the 99th National Tennis Championship was held on the 7th of September at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association premises.
This year’s tournament which has attracted a record number of over 750 entries is scheduled to take place in two segments comprising the junior and senior events. The junior events will kick off tomorrow and the senior events will start on the 15th of August with both segments planned to draw to a close on the 24th of August.
The main sponsors for the tournament are Bharti Airtel, who are sponsoring this prestigious event for the third time in a row and the official ball sponsor is Dunlop who are on board for the eighth consecutive year.
The event commenced at 5.00 pm with the arrival of the following dignitaries to the head table.
Seated from left to right- Mr. Dharaka Ellawala( Tournament Referee), Mr. Chandrashekar Singh( Chief Marketing Officer for Airtel), Mr. Iqbal Bin Issack( President of the SLTA), Mr. M.M. Mohamed (Managing Director Ralhem Trading), Mr. Pradeep Gunasekera ( General Secretary SLTA) and Mr. Udith Wickramasinghe (Chairman of the tournament matches committee)
Mr Iqbal Bin Issack, President of the SLTA addressed the gathering with delight as he expressed his gratitude towards the media for the interest taken in order to promote tennis in the island. He also went on to state the following. ‘The 100th National Tennis Championship is scheduled to take place next year and it will be a huge milestone for all those who are a part of this great sport, so we have planned many events such as three back to back $10000 ITF Futures events along with plans to refurbish the SLTA office premises and introduce three new hard courts”.
Mr Chandrashekar Singh the Chief Marketing Officer for Airtel in his turn stated ‘this is our third consecutive year sponsoring the tournament and I must say that we could not have asked for a better job to be done as far as organizing is concerned, so for that we congratulate the SLTA on a job well done. I also hope that this year’s tournament will produce tennis of the finest quality that will not only raise the bar for tennis in the country but for all sports looking to organize events of this calibre’
The event came to a close with the handing over of the sponsorship cheque courtesy the main sponsors Bharti Airtel along with the handing over of the sponsorship equipment courtesy Ralhem Trading who are the agents of Dunlop and the official ball sponsor for the tournament.
ThePapare.com will bring updates and pictures for both the junior and senior segments and takes this opportunity to wish all the players the very best ahead of what is set to be the most important tournament of the year.
