Malaysian Open: Starbucks Coffee, Krispy Kreme, Gatorade, Eau Claire the latest Official Suppliers

I just came back from a special Majlis Berbuka Puasa (break fast for Muslims) organised by the nice people at IMG/Malaysian Open.

According to the Tournament Director Nick Freyer, the event is just three weeks away and everything is in perfect order including court installation.

During the "Makan" function, he took the opportunity to welcome Starbucks Coffee, Krispy Kreme, Gatorade and Eau Claire as Official Suppliers to the Malaysian Open.

This is my appetizer...

Personally I'm happy with this announcement because I'm entitled for a 20% discount (I'm working under the Mother company of Starbucks Coffee and Krispy Kreme)! :D

I was told that during the tournament, Starbucks Chill Patrol, a newly launched mobile coffee van will be parked on-site (at the front entrance of the Putra Stadium).

IMG staff, media and sponsors pose for a family photo...

If you still haven't get your tickets to the Malaysian Open, it's available through TicketPro or via their Hotline: +603 7880 7999. You can also purchase tickets through TicketPro outlets.

(Via IMG)

A special mention by LTAM...

Thank you to the nice people at Lawn Tennis Association Malaysia (LTAM) for the special mention of this humble blog on their website.

Hopefully my little contribution will help in some way to put Malaysia on the tennis world map.

The name HCFoo is no stranger to the local blog scene. HCFoo dedicates her blog solely on tennis, featuring the gossips and tournaments that surrounds it.

HCFoo will also be covering the Malaysian Open (ATP 250) rather extensively. Such work done by our fellow Malaysians are much appreciated in a bid to further promote and create interest in the game.

Welcome to the club HCFoo!

HCFoo's Tennis Blog can be viewed at http://www.hcfoo.com/

"We Love Malaysian Open" Contest: Semifinals Tickets (Gold Seats) & Goodies Giveaway

It's contest time again!

To support my home tournament, the Malaysian Open, scheduled to run between September 26 and October 4, 2009, I'm going to giveaway the following goodies I took from media briefings to 3 lucky winners (you can take a good look at some of the prizes here).

Updates: A big thank you to the Tournament Director of the Malaysian Open who sponsors 2 pairs of Gold tickets to this exciting ATP 250 event.

Grand Prize #1
Gold Semifinals Seat (Day session) x 2

Grand Prize #2
Gold Semifinals Seat (Evening session) x 2

Second prize
Australian Open "mini tennis ball" keychain x 1
Malaysian Open notebook x 1 (not laptop, okay)
Official Guide To Professional Tennis x 1
ATP World Tour 2009 season book x 1
Wilson socks x 1
Wilson cap x 1

Third prize
Malaysian Open notebook x 1 (not laptop, okay)
ATP World Tour 2009 season book x 1
Wilson socks x 1
Wilson cap x 1

Consolation prize
Malaysian Open poster x 1

To enter for a chance to win these prizes, simply leave ANY comment(s) BASED ON THE IMAGES below.

Info: Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet were here in Malaysian back in 2007. Gasquet will be coming back to Malaysia again for the Malaysian Open while Nadal will be playing at the Thailand Open. Both tournaments run on the same week.

You can leave as many comments as you want (Remember to leave your e-mail address in case I need to contact you!)

However, we'll only pick 5 lucky winners (from the Asia-Pacific only) who give the most creative comments!

By the way, do spend a minute or two to go through the terms and conditions below before you participate in this contest:

Eligibility Criteria
This Contest is open to readers in the Asia-Pacific only. Sorry to friends and readers outside of Asia Pacific as HCFoo can only afford to pay for courier service within this continent.

Language of Contest
This Contest will be organised by the Organiser in the English language. Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia languages are also accepted.

Entry Procedure
1) Contestants are required to post comment(s) and leave their e-mail address on this blog post. Or else I won't be able to contact you.

2) If Contestants are selected as the Winners of this contest, he/she shall provide their full names, if requested.

Entry Deadline
Entries/comments must be received by the Organiser on or before 11:59pm on 31th August, 2009. Entries/comments received after the stipulated time will be disqualified and ineligible for consideration for prizes.

Notification of Winners
The winners’ names/nicknames will be announced by the Organiser via e-mail and will be posted on this blog.

Additional Terms
A Contestant may enter multiple entries in this Contest. However, a Contestant can only win once in this Contest. Any subsequent wins (if declared) will be automatically void.

CONTEST: Malaysian Open goodies giveaway coming soon!

Did you guys remember I take home some goodies at the Malaysian Open media briefings?

I've decided to share it with you guys. These are the things that I'm going to giveaway:

Australian Open "mini tennis ball" keychain x 1
Malaysian Open notebook x 1
Official Guide To Pro Tennis x 1
and more...

Nah, not the huge Malaysian Open tennis ball as I've given it away to a friend.

Esther has "unofficially" won 2 Gold tickets to the final at the Malaysian Open because she was quicker than me in posting the correct answer on the Malaysian Open Facebook page. Or else I could giveaway the tickets here.

Instead I'm going to offer the Australian Open keychain to you guys, although I loved it so much...

So, do come back for this contest as I'll be posting the details this Sunday night.

P.S. This contest is open to all countries in the Asia Pacific only. Sorry to friends in other continents. I'll organise a different contest to you guys next time.

VIDEO: Malaysian Open Tennis promo video, sponsors

Today I was at the Malaysian Open media briefing again.

This time around, the Tournament Director, Nick Freyer not only unveiled the tournament promo video, he also announced new and strategic associations with three major international companies.

Junji S. the Sales Director of CNN, SEA, Nick Freyer the Tournament Director and Giri the winner of "Best Job in Malaysia".

Malaysian Open welcomed CNN as the Official Sponsor and International Media Partner.

During the tournament, the sponsor will be showcasing CNN and the CNN World Sport products at the entertainment village and via player computer terminals.

Meanwhile TennisWeek.com, one of the world's most viewed tennis websites and Tecnifibre, the "Official Stringer" also come in to further strengthen the tournament.

During the event, the Tournament Director also announced the winner of "The Best Job in Malaysia" competition which went to 25-year-old Giritharan Sithambarnathan from Perak.

To read my tweets regarding the event, click here.

(Via IMG/Malaysian Open Tennis)

Malaysian Open Tennis 2009: Here's the official entry list...

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I have to republish this again.

1 Davydenko, Nikolay RUS (currently ranked at no.8)
2 Verdasco, Fernando ESP 10
3 Soderling, Robin SWE 11
4 Gonzalez, Fernando CHI 12
5 Monfils, Gael FRA 13
6 Berdych, Tomas CZE 18
7 Ferrer, David ESP 19
8 Tursunov, Dmitry RUS 32
9 Lopez, Feliciano ESP 36 (Wooohooooooooo! My prayers answered!)
10 Gasquet, Richard FRA 38 (Wonder if he's ready to make a return trip to Malaysia and play here...)
11 Hewitt, Lleyton AUS 42
12 Kunitsyn, Igor RUS 43
13 Vassallo Arguello, Martin ARG 49
14 Vliegen, Kristof BEL 50
15 Acasuso, Jose ARG 51
16 Serra, Florent FRA 56
17 Golubev, Andrey KAZ 57
18 Rochus, Christophe BEL 60
19 Youzhny, Mikhail RUS 64
20 (SE)
21 (SE)
22 (Q)
23 (Q)
24 (Q)
25 (Q)
26 (WC) (Will be given to Kei Nishikori if he can recover in time for this tournament... very unlikely though)
27 (WC)
28 (WC)

Alternates
1. Greul, Simon GER 66
2. Bellucci, Thomaz BRA 67
3. Ginepri, Robby USA 70
4. Hernych, Jan CZE 72
5. Koellerer, Daniel AUT 73
6. Lu, Yen-Hsun TPE 74 (If Nishikori can't recover in time for MO, then please bring Rendy, Asia's best here!)
7. Crivoi, Victor ROU 75
8. Gabashvili, Teimuraz RUS 76
9. Zeballos, Horacio ARG 78
10. Luczak, Peter AUS 79
11. Kendrick, Robert USA 80
12. Korolev, Evgeny RUS 82
13. Hernandez, Oscar ESP 84
14. Odesnik, Wayne USA 85
15. Phau, Bjorn GER 87

If you're impressed with the line-up, then get your tickets fast! Go to www.MalaysianOpenTennis.com

In the meanwhile, HCFoo is hoping and drooling for a pair up between Verdasco and Lopez at the Malaysian Open doubles match.

2009 Malaysian Open media briefing: Wilson, Twitter & Tomas Berdych

As usual, I was punctual to the Malaysian Open media briefing.

I greeted the Event Director and the Media Director before took a seat at the Business Conference Room.

I could see four huge buntings of Roger Federer, Kei Nishikori, Serena Williams and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga standing proud in the room.

As you know, we won't be having Tsonga, Williams and Federer here but we do have Japanese teenage sensation Nishikori who is one of the star player to appear in the Malaysian Open next month.

The media briefing kicked off with a quiz and the prize was an autographed photo of Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. I didn't even try to answer (you know why!), so someone else won it.

Then Tournament Director, Nick Freyer took time to explain about the hawk-eye system which is first used in this region.

Actually throughout that evening, I was busy twittering some of the information I gathered from the event.

• At Mandarin Oriental. Media briefing will start in 15min.
• http://twitpic.com/cpwzw - at the 2nd media briefing for Malaysian Open. They are going to announce Wilson as 1 of the official sponsor.
• Someone won an autograph photo of pete and roger
• http://twitpic.com/cpy32 - tourney director explaning the hawkeye system first used in this region
• Marcos Baghdatis' agent requested for a wildcard to play at the malaysian open
• Tomas Berdych is the player announced today to play at the @KLopentennis

• I've asked the tourney director abt the possibilities for Verdasco to play in dubs with Feli. Not sure yet but he doesn't deny
• One of the Indian dubs specialist will play in the Malaysian Open
• 5 candidates were shortlisted for interview for the 'best job'. That include @jitterbug70!
• Ok i'm off now to get my goodies bag
• http://twitpic.com/cq41g - more pic frm media briefing.. Tomas Berdych the latest to play in the Malaysian Open
• http://twitpic.com/cq63m - Malaysian Open have ballgirls too? Tourney director, Ltam president and wilson boss pose with the models

Check out the official uniform sponsored by Wilson for the Malaysian Open.

LTAM President, Amer Sports (Wilson Malaysia) Country Manager, Tourney Director and the models need a giant racket each like the one Will Farrell used in an exho match back in May.

According to the Tournament Director, merchandises will only be available for sale in the second year. So probably you won't get to buy the tournament cap, balls, etc. this year.

Wilson gave away goodie bag to everyone who attended the media briefing.

Inside the Roger Federer-15th GS celebration-paperbag, there's a huge Malaysian Open tennis ball, an Australian Open key chain (this is what I've always wanted!), caps, socks, a K Factor t-shirt!

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back with more updated on the Malaysian Open soon.

For tickets information, go to: http://malaysianopentennis.com/tickets.html

(Photo credit: 3rd and 4th Images by IMG)

Too happy, too soon?

After listed for just one day in the ATP World Tour calendar, ATP 250 Malaysian Open (tentative name), a USD500k outdoor hard court event has disappeared from the list!

Click image to enlarge

Now first of all, let me show you how I knew that Malaysia was bidding for the ATP event:

January 2009

• LTAM wrote in their website that "an ATP official, together with a foreign organiser, visited the NTC two weeks earlier".
  
• LTAM president Datuk Abdul Razak Latif 'confirmed' to a daily (which is NST) that "Andy Roddick is highly tipped to play in an ATP Tour event in KL come September".
• I wrote an email to LTAM and they confirmed the reports but said they are still in the bidding process.
• The manager of a Top 100 player confirmed there's indeed a TBA (to be announced) event.
• Esther and I speculated that the TBA event should be not very far from Thailand, hence we thought Malaysia had a good chance to win the bid.
  

February 2009

• I wrote to the CEO of ATP Adam Helfant regarding the TBA event and asked about the bidding process.
• Mr Helfant forwarded my email to Brad Drewett, the CEO of ATP International. This is what Brad replied to me: No decision has been made regarding the TBA event in September. I expect a decision to be made sometime in the next three months. I am unable to confirm which cities are candidates for this event due to confidentiality requirements.

May 12, 2009

• I check the ATP calendar and google for any news every single day from May onwards as I believe the results will be out any time soon.
  
• I saw the updated ATP World Tour calendar which listed Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in an ATP 250 event, same week as Thailand Open. Someone informed about the updated calendar in this forum too.

May 13, 2009

• The supposedly ATP 250 event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has been taken off the ATP World Tour calendar.
  

I will not make any speculation now until I dig deep into this event.

Anyone who has information can email to me at hcfoo7@gmail.com.

You read it here first! Malaysia to host ATP 250 event in September 2009

I cannot describe how happy I was when I checked the ATP World Tour calendar this morning.

Click the image to enlarge.

Malaysia, my home country, has won the bid to organize an ATP 250 event which is scheduled to start on September 28, the same week as the Thailand Open!

Earlier this year, Andy Roddick was speculated to play here.

I'll keep you guys posted if I received any latest updates.