Standard Bank Open VI edition: May 28 - 19 June
The Courts of the Tunduro Garden, in the country’s capital, Maputo, hosts, between the 28th of May and the 19th of June, the 6th edition of the Standard Bank Open, which for the second consecutive time, counts with three major competitions, including two Futures in men and also the competition in the category of Senior Women.
The Futures category has the distinction of scoring points on the international ranking (ATP ranking) and is part of the International Tennis Circuit (ITF Men’s Circuit), in addition to being recognized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
With three hundred athletes from 28 countries enrolled, 18 have already qualified for this competition of international athletes, most notably tennis players Lloyd Harris, from South Africa (number 303 in the ATP ranking), Roberto Marcora, from Italy (number 323), Dimitar Kuzmanov, from Bulgaria (number 326), Pedro Sousa, from Portugal (number 355) and Niels Desein, from Belgium (number 357).
For this edition six international referees are expected to participate and thanks to the internationalization of Standard Bank Open for the first time, a Mozambican official will act as line judge at the Wimbledon Tennis 2016 to be held from June 27th and July the 10th in London.
At the launching press conference, held on 26 May, in Maputo, the managing director from Standard Bank, Chuma Nwokocha, said the biggest gain from Standard Bank is to make this tournament into an exhibition platform of Mozambique in the world, particularly the national tennis players.
“We are conquering what we have set out at the beginning of the project, as one of the main objectives is to help popularize tennis in the country considering that many of Mozambican families, especially children who had no access to the courts, are already embracing the sport”, he said.
On his turn, Valige Tauabo, chairman of the Mozambican Tennis Federation, said that Mozambique joined the international tennis through Standard Bank Open: “With the tournament at the international level allowed many children to practice tennis in the country, which is why national under-12 athletes, that participated in the Standard Bank Open, achieved a great performance in the circuit of the International Tennis Federation held in Botswana”, he explained.
Standard Bank Open will start with group competitions in several categories, involving national athletes, and a workshop to train referees which will be facilitated by ITF, and this will be followed by the qualifying games for the Futures.
It is remarkable that this year, the trophy for the major competitions will have the Timbila format, designed on the basis of wood, as a way to consolidate the identity of the competition, through one of the most popular traditional musical instruments of the country, already considered as heritage of humanity.