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/

Si Yew Ming delivers all 3 points to help Malaysia stay in DC Group II Asia/Oceania Zone

Malaysia no.1 Si Yew Ming helped Malaysia sealed their campaign with a 3-1 win over Kuwait in the Davis Cup BNP Paribas Group II Asia/Oceania Zone 2009 relegation play-off at the National Tennis Centre in Kuala Lumpur today.

Yew Ming had minimal problems defeating Kuwaiti player Hassan Al Moussa 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 in under two hours in the 4th rubber.

The second singles match of the day was called off after the Kuwaiti team decided not to field their player who was injured.

The win ensures Malaysia stays in Group II of the tournament.

An elated Yew Ming credited the team for his excellent performance throughout the three day tournament.

“It was a team effort. We all played our parts well,” said Yew Ming.

“It’s a whole new experience for me in the Davis Cup and everything is going well. We’re getting better after every tournament and it’s a good sign.”

Yew Ming stressed he will continue training hard to improve his playing ability.

Thanks to Rahida for the press release.

(Image by LTAM)

2009 Davis Cup Group II Asia/Oceania: Malaysia vs Kuwait in relegation play-off

The national tennis players in my country are going to have a tough job this weekend.

Team Malaysia will have to be at their best to remain in Group II, Asia/Oceania Zone when they meet Team Kuwait in a relegation play-off for the next 3 days.

Since the country's no. 2 Adam Jaya has injured himself during the recent Malaysia Futures tournament, 40-year old V. Selvam is chosen to join his younger team mates in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas tie.

If you are free and have nothing better to do from Friday to Sunday, please head to the National Tennis Centre, Kuala Lumpur. Matches start from 4 p.m. except on Saturday. Admission is free.

Check out the OOP below:

1st day, 10 July 2009 Friday, 4pm
First Singles Match
Si Yew Meng, MAS VS Ahmad Rabeeca Muhammad, KUW

Second Singles Match
Razlan Rawi, MAS VS Mohammed Ghareeb, KUW

2nd Day, 11 July 2009 Saturday, 5pm
Doubles Match
V.Selvam & Si Yew Meng, MAS VS Mohammed Ghareeb & Ahmad Rabeeca Muhammad, KUW

3rd Day, 12 July 2009 Sunday, 4pm
First Singles Match
Si Yew Meng, MAS VS Mohammed Ghareeb, KUW

Second Singles Match
Razlan Rawi, MAS VS Ahmad Rabeeca Muhammad, KUW

Team Kuwait: Mohammad Ghareeb, Hassan Al Mousa, Musaad Al Jazzaf, Ahmad Rabeea Muhammad, Khaled Al Foudari (Captain)

Team Malaysia: Yew-Ming Si, Selvam Veerasingam, Razlan Rawi, Abd-Hazli Bin Zainuddin, Singaram Selvarajoo (Captain)

(Images by LTAM)

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.

A women's tennis event that never take off in Kuala Lumpur

I wanted to write this post a couple of days ago but needed more time to dig info.

If you don't read local paper The News Straits Times, probably you've missed a couple of articles about bringing a WTA women's tennis event to Kuala Lumpur.

The first article was published in September but I first read about it in tennisforum.com.

The initial plan was this: a makeshift tennis stadium to be erected at the Twin Towers' open car park specially for the event.

Very ambitious indeed! And I was super excited!

Now this event was said to be a US$400,000 event and expected to play in the second half of the year 2009.

Okay, that was the first article.

Then there was this second article three months later in December 2008 saying that the Malaysian Open will be held on Feb 23 to March 1.

And this time the venue was: a makeshift tennis stadium to be erected at the Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club (BKEC) in Hartamas!

The article said the organiser was trying to raise the total prize money from USS225,000 to US$400,000 to attract top names for the hard court tournament. Some of the names mentioned including Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic!

Now the event is cancelled.

There are no proper explanation or statement from the organiser or LTAM to the media. Probably because this event is still considered to be in a planning stage and it's not a responsibility to explain what had happened or gone wrong.

From what my source told me, the organiser here is Carbon Group, who has the reputation of managing events like A1GP Malaysia and other motor sports and golf events.

I don't really mind their lack of experience in managing tennis events because you can always engage with the experts from overseas particularly from our neighbouring countries who organise WTA or ATP events every year.

Besides Malaysia has organised tennis exhibitions twice that featured tennis players like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer as well as legends like Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg. Although the tennis exhos were organised by different company, you have seen how they worked, roped in sponsors and made it happened.

And not forgetting, Malaysia has organised WTA tournaments back in 1999 and 2000 before it was moved to Bali.

Now what surprises me is that the article stated this: "The local organiser managed to outbid 16 other countries for the WTA Tour event about a month (in November?) ago."

How can you outbid other countries when you know you don't even have enough of the money?

Did the organiser realise the consequences of doing this?

And do they ever think they can organise a huge event like this in just 2-3 months?

And why not make the National Tennis Centre the main venue? This place has been used for ITF Futures and Challenger events! I believe earlier booking and renovation to upgrade the place would be sufficient to turn this place into an international tennis tournament venue.

Supposed 2 weeks from now tennis fans would be able to watch a women's tennis event in Malaysia. And looking at Jelena's schedule, she's free during that Feb 23-March 1 week. She could have travelled here!

Now I wonder if there's any chance for other local organisers to bid for a WTA event like this in the future because of the failure of Carbon Group to put up the show here.

Andy Roddick to play in ATP Tour event in KL?

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!

Malaysian Juan Antonio Los Santos to debut for Australian Junior Open

Finally a junior player from Malaysia is on his way to make a debut at the Australian Junior Open.

Juan Antonio Los Santos will make his grand slam debut in the junior ranks on Jan 25-31 at Melbourne Park. The 17-year-old will be the first Malaysian in almost 20 years (!) to compete in a grand slam junior event.

Los Santos is currently ranked at no. 139 in the junior ranking, will compete in the qualifying rounds.

If you think why Los Santos's name doesn't sound Malaysian, it's because he's of mixed Spanish-Chinese parentage.

He is currently competing in the ITF Grade One Loy Yang Power Traralgon International and will later play in the Optus Notting Hill International (Jan 16-23), both in Melbourne.

National coach Rahizam Rahim said Juan's acceptance into the Australian Open marks a new beginning for Malaysian tennis.

"It's an indication that local tennis is progressing. However, his parents should be given credit for supporting him," said Rahizam yesterday.

Los Santos, in an recent interview, said he hopes to become a successful professional player one day.

His mother, Gabby, is a former international who played in the Junior Wimbledon in 1981.

Los Santos has been making steady progress since he was 13 when he won several ATF Under-14 championships and also held the Asian no. 1 ranking in this category.

In 2007, he become the youngest Malaysian winner of the ITF junior circuit when he won the Grade Four Brunei event.

Updates:
His mom Gabby still haven't reply my email which request for Los Santos photos and updates. However I managed to find one photo online.

Cute, eh?

Los Santos, who will be making his Australian Junior Open debut on Sunday, failed to make an impact in two recent ITF Grade One Junior events.

At the Loy Yong Power International, Los Santos fell 6-2, 6-3 to Australia's Jason Murry Kubler in the first round in Traralgon.

In Melbourne, Los Santos, the World No 139 in the junior ranking, was beaten 6-4, 6-1 by Italy' Alessandro Colella in the Optus Nottinghill International.

(Via NST)

Malaysia to host US$400k Tier II WTA tournament under Petronas Twin Towers

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

Young Arize needs fund, Malaysia need world class tennis player

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)

Malaysian tennis in dilemma

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.

french open, prediction contest and more contest

Woahoo~ another final match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Watch it on Astro SuperSport this Sunday at 9 p.m.

Since the first day of the French Open, I've been joining the the prediction contest on the Roland Garros official website. Starting at over 8000th place, I've improved to 4542 rank today.


Oh yeah, there's another contest that I joined today. I'm sure some of you guys like to watch Miami Ink on Discovery Travel and Living. I'm a huge fan of the show. If you want to go to Miami and get a tattoo from the tattoo artists in Miami Ink, go to the contest website and tell them what tattoo you want to have and why.