The annual World Medical Tennis Society (WMTS) tournament, which this year is being held in Malta, between tomorrow and 21 October, has attracted the participation of no fewer than 288 doctors hailing from 22 countries.
Although not a record, it is definitely a very large number of participating doctors with Japan leading the field of participants with 38. They are followed by Sweden 35, the US 33, Germany 26 and Poland 22.
The other participating countries are Czech Republic, Canada, Indonesia, Ireland, United King dom, Norway, Holland, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Taiwan and Austria.
Malta is also well represented with 14 of the locally based 34 playing doctors. Unfortunately, Dr Audrey Camilleri, a top female player, is ruled out after injuring her back recently.
Addressing a news conference yesterday at the Marsa Sports club, chief organiser Prof. Angelo Psaila said that apart from the individual events, there will also be the Nations Cup with Malta taking part in it for the first time.
He also said that apart from the tennis tournament, there will be the 36th annual congress of the society. They had also arranged a visit to the new Mater Dei Hospital which is to open its doors next year.
Mr Michael Abele, tournament director said matches will be played at the courts of the Marsa Sports Club, the Vittoriosa Lawn Tennis Club and Tennis Club Kordin. “Had it not been for the co-operation of these three clubs, it would not have been possible to stage the required 600 matches in just five days. If rain interrupts play, we will have to change the format or include matches under floodlights,” he said.
The events to be contested are as follows:
Open – men’s and ladies singles; men’s and ladies doubles, mixed doubles and men’s and ladies singles for medical doctors,
Other events: men’s singles (medical doctors – various age groups); ladies doubles (medical doctors – various age groups); Men’s doubles (various age groups); ladies doubles (various age groups) and mixed doubles (various age groups).
It is interesting to note that there will be categories for the over 40s, 45s, 50s and up to 80s with one of the contestants being 87 years old.
The organisers thanked the many sponsors, foremost among whom were the MTA, the Maltese Council for Sport, Tumas Group and the several small ‘benefactors’ whose support was also very much appreciated.