I've missed this article last month but it's never too late to report this amazing news right now. It's definitely beyond my imagination to watch WTA players like Maria Sharapova or Serena Williams playing with the Petronas Twin Towers as a spectacular backdrop.
According to the president of Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) Datuk Abdul Razak Latiff, this could become reality in the second half of year 2009 when Kuala Lumpur hosts the US$400,000 Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Malaysian Open.
The tournament, a Tier II WTA event, is expected to attract some of the top names in women's tennis.
A makeshift tennis stadium will be erected at the Twin Towers' open car park specially for the event.
WTF??? Playing on a open car park you might ask!
Nevermind, Petronas has tonnes of money to build a proper tennis court on any ground.
By the way, Malaysia do have a nice national tennis centre but the twin towers backdrop would be a sensational gimmick!
Of course, Malaysian players will not be left out of as the WTA is offering three wild cards to the hosts.
National No 1 Jawairiah Noordin will likely be offered the sole wild card in the main draw, while the other two are on offer for the qualifying round.
The event is tentatively slotted for sometime between August and September, to coincide with the WTA Bali, China, Japan and Taskent (Uzbekistan) events.
Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) president Datuk Abdul Razak Latiff said the Malaysia Open will consist of singles and doubles.
The singles will be a draw of 32 players while the doubles has yet to be confirmed.
"The Sports Ministry has given its blessing and we are currently negotiating with the WTA on the best available dates for the event," said Abdul Razak.Abdul Razak confirmed that the association have identified the Twin Towers' open car park as the venue.
"However, this is subject to approval from the local authorities. The other option is to host it at Dataran Merdeka."I'm dying to meet Serbian tennis players like Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic but they are very unlikely to come to Malaysia :( due to political reasons.
Serbian citizens were previously not allowed to enter Malaysia without special permission (now Serbian citizens can obtain visas for a maximum of 30 days*). But again, you and I will never know.
(Via The New Straits Times, tennisforum.com, Image via 2bangkok.com)
*cited from wikipedia
