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/
Esther, thanks for this tip. I didn't know the Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) guys update their website during Chinese New Year holiday! I guess they can't wait to deliver this piece of news.
Here's what posted on the LTAM website:
World No 9 Andy Roddick is highly tipped to play in an ATP Tour event in Kuala Lumpur (KL) come September.
This was confirmed by Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia president Datuk Abdul Razak Latif in a local daily.
The former US Open champion is among the several stars which could feature in the tournament scheduled at the National Tennis Center in Jalan Duta.
"An ATP official, together with a foreign organiser, visited the NTC about two weeks ago and were happy with the facilities. However, they want the indoor stadium to be upgraded," Abdul Razak was quoted as saying.
"The stadium needs to be upgraded into a 3,000 seating capacity arena and it must be fully air-conditioned with proper lighting."
"The event, if everything goes well, will be held at the end of September. The total prize money will be released soon."
Hey, isn't it Thailand Open falls on September too?
Late last year, LTAM president also mentioned about hosting a WTA Tour event in the second half of year 2009.
Are they thinking of hosting a combined ATP and WTA event?
I won't speculate further. Stay tune for more updates soon!
I usually skip the local sports news.
Somehow I was 'attracted' to the picture of this young boy along with the title 'Young Arize needs funds to rise on world stage'.
I thought, there you go another young kid who's probably very talented but won't be able to go far in the sports he took.
By the time I started reading the second paragraph, I realized that Arize Elyaas Deen Heshaam is an aspiring young Malaysian tennis player who dreams big (and I bet his dad, Deen Heshaam Abdullah Tan, too!).
Arize's dad said that although Arize was privately sponsored and provided training facilities by the state tennis association and the Malaysian Lawn Tennis Federation (LTAM), it was still inadequate to fund his participation in the circuit.
“I hope there will be sponsors for Arize as he is talented and can make the country proud,” Deen Heshaam said.
Arize, who was ranked second in Malaysia and 650th in the world, won the Riffa View trophy in the Under-14 category in Bahrain last year.
Deen Heshaam was confident that his son could break into the top 100 of the world rankings next year and qualify for bigger tournaments.“Arize must participate in at least 14 ITF circuits to collect points to qualify for the Grand Slam in 2010,” he said.
He also said that he sparred with Arize at least 6 hours daily and as part of the preparations, his son would also undergo training for one week in France.
Now here are my points.
For young tennis players to be able to compete at the highest level, they need strong financial backing who are mostly from their parents to fund this sport.
For those who doesn't, the financial burden to parents can be immense.
I bet Arize and his dad have been working very hard all these years to reach to a level where based on Arize ranking, he is able to get at least some financial help from LTAM and the state tennis association.
However it's not going to be enough unless Arize is lucky enough to get secure sponsorships from big organisations.
Tennis is quite an expensive sports.The more Arize practice and compete in the international level, the more it costs.
How many people do you think can afford to pay thousands of dollars worth of training costs per year (at least Arize doesn't have to worry about this as he is being trained by his dad), a vast amount of money to fund tournament costs including travelling as well as equipment costs?
And how much does a parent has to exactly fork out on their own to enable their kid to reach a level or ranking where they might be noticed for sponsorship from the private sector?
Realistically, the potential of an aspiring young tennis player will never going to be maximised by personal funding alone thus he/she will never going to receive any financial help along the way. That simply means the kid can bury his/her dream alive.
Arize is not promising us to be the next Asian tennis star or emulate the success of his idol Roger Federer but he and his dad promised to work hard to achieve the best possible results and highest playing level.
Take some risks and offer financial help to make their aspiration and dream come true. Malaysia could have a top 100 player soon.(Via thestar.com.my)
I hope what I'm reading is true. Not only that we might be having tennis legends Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, as well as current ATP world no. 1 and 2, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal right here in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 18, we might be having WTA tournament right in our backyard next year too!
LTAM have plans of bringing in international stars including world No 1 Roger Federer and Spanish ace Rafael Nadal later this year followed by a WTA tournament next year to further spur the interest of tennis among the locals. ~ Malay Mail
I salute Lawn Tennis Association Malaysia (LTAM) for bringing such high standard of tennis into this country. I almost lost hope in Malaysian tennis but now I can see how serious these guys at LTAM trying to relive tennis sport in our country again.
However, while LTAM is working hard to reinvent tennis sport in Malaysia, all the efforts seem to go down the drain after it was announced the sport will not be played at the next Malaysia Games in Malacca in 2010.
The reason for the exclusion remains unknown. Oh, perhaps Malaccans do not play tennis or there's not a single tennis court in that historical state. This call totally crushes the spirits of the younger enthusiasts.
And why isn’t football or hockey got the axe? You know our local football and hockey scene suck BIG time.
National tennis coach Rahizam Abdul Rahim was very upset upon learning the sport will not be held in Malacca.
“We allowed Malacca to host an ITF junior tournament last year as a bid to generate more interest among the youths in gearing up for the Sukma.But now tennis is not part of the list and it’s really disappointing.”
Rahizam further explained that Sukma is an avenue where the juniors graduate into the senior level. “It’s not like the standards of Sukma are high, but it still serves as a platform for us to scout new talents. The sport is well represented by all states and yet it’s being dropped.”
This is not the first time tennis was dropped from Sukma. Tennis was axed back in the Kedah 2006 Games. Instead of moving forward, we’re taking a step back.
Will Malaysia ever have players like Adam Malik or V. Selvam again? I mean, can you name a single Malaysia tennis player now? I can't. Don't we have talents here in this country? Who are responsible to transform the sport?
Perhaps LTAM should look at our national squash team as a model. With little resource, they are still able to go far and make an impact in the international level.
