Malta’s tennis aficionados are in for a feast of international tennis since tomorrow sees the start of the qualifying rounds of this year’s Malta International Tennis Federation tournament for juniors which will be held at the Marsa Sports Club.

Undoubtedly this Malta Tennis Federation initiative is the direct result of our active participation in the Junior Sub-committee of Tennis Europe and the ITF. In fact MTF Chairman Tony Cilia Pisani forms part of the ruling body of European Junior Tennis. The main draw competition starts tomorrow.

This year has seen an unprecedented number of international entries, with the organisers, directed by main organiser, Vice-Chairman MTF Mark Camilleri, having to run a full 48 qualifying draw for the boys and a 32 qualifying draw for the girls to accommodate the number of players wishing to take part.

Disappointingly Malta’s number 1 and last year’s Boys’ event winner, Matthew Asciak, has had to withdraw due to illness so Malta’s hopes for success will pass on to the country’s number 2 Matija Pecotic. Other national squad members, Clayton Zammit and Denzel Agius, are also part of main draw and are looking forward to taking on the international competition on home soil.

Three girls from the Maltese national squad are taking part. They are Elaine Genovese, Elena Jetcheva and Kim Cassar. All have main draw positions and following the recent Gasan Mamo top 4 girls event, held last month, all three are playing at the top of their game.

National coach Robert Tarpey said “This tournament is very important for both Malta’s boys and girls. It gives them a great chance to increase their ITF rankings and gives the girls valuable match practice ahead of this April’s Federation Cup for ladies’ national teams which will be held in Mauritius next month.