Organizers overwhelmed with number of entries in Citigreen net

From left, tournament referees Jun Tabura and Mario Craiz, Head ATP’s Thea Llamson-Concepcion, and Citigreen’s Daisy Jade Abangan and Shan Osorio gather during the press conference for the Globe Citigreen Junior Tennis Cup 2018.
Mars G. Alison

A RECORD number of 233 netters from around the Philippines will be seeing action in the 4th edition of the Globe Citigreen Junior Tennis Cup, which will come off wraps today and end on Oct. 9 in separate venues in Cebu City.

The tournament, a Group 2-sanctioned event by the Unified Tennis Philippines, will be played at the Citigreen Tennis Resort, Alta Vista Golf and Country Club and Pardo Tennis Court.

“We are overwhelmed (with the number of entries). We really did not expect this because this year, we are only allowing single entry. Last year, we had 235 but that was double entry. So if we had allowed double entry this year, we’d have about 400 netters,” said tournament organizer Shan Osorio during the press conference held at the Citigreen Cafe yesterday.

Tournament referee Mario Craiz attributes the spike of entries to the organizers having gained the trust of the tennis community.

“They are our loyal followers,” Craiz said.

Aside from around Cebu, entries are from Manila, Cavite, Pangasinan, Ormoc, Leyte, Iloilo, Bohol, Dumaguete, Bais, Bacolod, CDO, Dipolog, Sultan Kudarat Surigao, Lanao del Norte, Ozamiz, Zamboanga del Norte and Sur, Oroquieta, Maranding, and Butuan, among others.

Unlike in previous years, participants are only allowed a single entry in both the singles and doubles events because the singles champions of this tournament will form the Citigreen Junior Tennis Team that will compete in three international tournaments in Malaysia and Thailand, explained tournament referee Jun Tabura.

Tabura added that this way, many netters will be given a chance to experience competing in international events. Also, double entry is not allowed in these international tournaments.

The event started sending champions to international competitions last year via the Hat Yai-100 Plus International Junior Tennis Championships in Hat Yai, Thailand.

This year, Daisy Jade Abangan, the chief operations manager of Citigreen, said that they are adding two more international tournaments — the Penang Junior International Tennis Championship in Penang, Malaysia from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3, and the Perlis Milo International Junior Tennis Championship in Perlis, Malaysia from Dec. 4 to 8. The Hat Yai netfest will be from Dec. 9 to 12.

The fourth edition of the Citigreen netfest also has a new category, the 8 Unisex which will be played in straight 4, or short set wherein instead of six games per set, there’s only four.

The 8 Unisex is added to the regular categories of 10 Unisex, 12 Under Boys/Girls, 14U Boys/Girls, 16U Boys/Girls and 18U Boys/Girls. The doubles events also have the same categories.