Monthly Archives: April 2009

Tennis Championships

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There are a huge number of tennis championships that are played in a calendar year, the most important of them being the four Grand Slams. They are the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. These tennis tournaments are the most important ones as they have the highest prize money and include the highest number of players as well as the highest viewership. If any player or a doubles tennis team is able to win all the four Grand Slam tennis championships in a year then it is known as a calendar year Grand Slam. If they are able to win it successively but not in the same year, then it is named as a non-calendar year Grand Slam while if they win it over their career period, then it is labelled as a Career Grand Slam. These tennis championships are treated as the most prized possessions of a tennis player’s career as it affords a lot of prize money apart from the obvious rise in status as a player. The most number of Grand Slams that a male player has ever won is 14. This record is currently held by Pete Sampras who hails from America. He is currently retired from active professional tennis.

Dubai Tennis Championships

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The Dubai Tennis tournament is an annual event which is played on hard-courts in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This event is sponsored by the Barclays Bank and is property of Dubai Duty Free. This tournament organises both men’s as well as women’s tennis championships and is the brainchild of H.H.Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum who is the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Dubai. For over a period of five years the tournament saw a complete dominance on the men’s as well as the women’s front. Roger Federer won the Dubai Tennis championship for a consecutive period of 5 years from 2003-07 while Justine Henin from Belgium did the same in the women’s championships. Last year saw a different set of winners, Andy Roddick and Elena Demetieva doing the honours. This year saw a different set of winners as well with Novak Djokovic stealing the limelight in the men’s tourney while Venus Williams saw off the challengers to win the women’s leg. The Dubai Tennis tournament is one of the most important tennis tournaments in the world because of the high prize money that attracts a lot of high-ranked players from all over the world.

Babolat Tennis

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Babolat is one of the leading makers of tennis, squash and badminton racquets in the world today with its tennis products enjoying a world-wide customer base. It is a French-based company and boasts of an impressive display of names on its customer list, which include, Carlos Moya, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Michael Chang, Robby Ginepri and the like. The first strings were made by this company when Pierce Babolat made them out of natural gut. This was in 1875. The main aim of this company was focussed only in making strings until 1994 when it decided to shift its interests towards becoming a sole “tennis” company. This meant that the market saw the inflow of Babolat tennis racquets which went on to become a huge rage in the European market. They were later introduced in Japan before making their presence felt in USA in 2000. The company first became famous in tennis racquet production in North America and Europe and soon it was getting identified by the dozen by its characteristic double stringed layout. Apart from this, the frame was of the racquet had a distinct feel to it which made it a favourite with many top tennis players.

ATP Challenger Tour

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The ATP Challenger Tennis Series was the former name of the ATP Challenger Tour until it got a revamp in the dying stages of 2008. The series consists of a number of international men’s tennis matches which allow the players to earn points so that they can qualify to the ATP level. The general tournament into which they gain entry is the 250 series tournament which is the main draw level. This series is fully under the control and is organised by the Association of Tennis Professionals.

The first version of the Challenger Tennis tournaments was held in 1978. The first year saw a total of 18 events being covered. The first events were held in Auckland and Hobart respectively in the month of January while the rest of the events were held starting from June 18th till the end of August. A number of places were chosen to play the matches. This is in stark contrast to the staggering number of matches, 178 in total, that were played in 2008 alone. The matches took place over a huge number of 40 countries which gives an idea of how the series has blossomed into a high-profile event.

The Indianapolis Tennis Championship

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The Indianapolis Tennis championship is a tennis tournament which is played every year as an integral part of the ATP tour. The name of the tournament has been changed to Indianapolis Tennis championship from RCA Championships. It is a men’s tennis tournament which is played annually in July for a week. The initiation of this tournament was in 1988 when it was played as the US Men’s Hard-court Championships. After this, the surface on which this tournament used to be played changed as also did the name. It was rescheduled during the course of the year so that it became a warm-up for the international male tennis players before the last Grand Slam of the year, the US Open. The tournament came into existence when the Indianapolis Sports Centre decided to merge their 18 clay courts which with Deco-Turf II which is the same surface on which the US Open is played. The previous editions of the Indianapolis Tennis tournament has caught the attention of almost all the leading male tennis players and Giles Simon from France managed to win the last edition of the same in 2008.

The Beijing Tennis Open

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The Beijing Tennis Open, or the China Open as it is now popularly known is a professional tennis tournament which is played annually in September. It is played in the Olympic Green Centre in Beijing, China. It was initiated in the year 1993 and continued to operate till 1998. But then in 1998, it was removed from the ATP tourney for reasons undisclosed and reinstated in 2004 when popular demand made the organisers decide to bring it back. It was one of the maiden tennis tournaments which were played in Asia. Along with the Qatar Open and the Dubai Tennis Championships, the Beijing Tennis Open was one of the few championships which the ATP had decided to start as part of the Asia tournament itinerary. After its reinstallation, the Beijing Tennis Open has been made a part of both the ATP and the WTA. This tournament is famous for being the only championship outside the USA to use the services of the Hawk-Eye technology to find out line call errors. Michael Chang is the only player who has won consecutive three titles in both the singles and the doubles format of the game.

Indoor Tennis Courts – The New Thing to Look Out for

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indoor_tennis_courtsIndoor tennis courts are very much the new thing to expect at all major tennis championships because players, officials and the fans never want to see a match getting disrupted by the likes of rain or excessive heat. The first indoor tennis courts to be used in professional tennis were the two stadiums at Australia. These two stadiums were used in the Australian Open to prevent matches from getting hampered by rain, heat and excessive sun light. Basically, these stadiums have a retractable roof which can be used in times of need. The roof can be closed which will prevent the forces of nature playing havoc with the match. But the process of using indoor tennis courts is not as simple as it seems. The entire surface has to be different as the indoor tennis courts need to have a different surface than the courts which are played in the open. There are a lot of factors which would affect the outdoor courts but which would not play any role in indoor tennis stadiums. Accordingly, the surface has to be modified so that the players do not face any difficulty.

Bank of the West Tennis Classic Championship

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usd-west-tennis-courts-2003The Bank of the West tennis Classis is a tennis tournament which is played over a week. It is a tennis championship organised by the WTA for women tennis players. The venue for this erstwhile tennis tournament is the campus of the Stanford University, California. It is generally held in the month of July but does not have a fixed date as such. The last edition of the Bank of the West tennis Classic was held in 2008 from July 14 to July 20.

The Bank of the West tennis Classic is the only tournament which features female tennis players only. The championship is played on hard-court and does not feature the men’s leg of the sport. This tournament constitutes the initiation of the US Open series which is one of the annual Grand Slams. It was first started in 1971. One of the greatest women’s tennis players, Martina Navratilova, is the only player to have won five of these titles in the years 1979-80, 1988, 1991 and finally 1993. The defending champion is Aleksandra Wozniak from Canada who defeated Marion Bartoli in the finals.

Pakistan's role in world class Tennis

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36077818439qureshi1Everyone familiar with world class tennis and its stars is familiar with the names Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (representing Pakistan) and Amir Hadad (representing Israel). These two players excel not only at tennis but at being true humanitarians.

The tennis world is also familiar with the story of the life and monumental tennis successes of Arthur Ashe (representing the USA). Born on July 10, 1943, and raised in Richmond, Virginia during the Civil Rights era, Arthur Ashe is the first African- American male to win a Grand Slam event. In addition to achieving the highest honours in the world of tennis, he also advanced the cause of social justice in his own country as well as South Africa as it struggled toward racial integration.

Arthur Ashe’s body lay in state at the Governor’s Mansion upon his death on February 6, 1993. To anyone familiar with the history of the old South in the US, the enormity of this honour is apparent. His statue stands proudly on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. It stands alongside heroes of the Confederacy.

That’s why when Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Amir Hadad teamed up for doubles competition at Wimbledon and the US Open it led to them both being awarded the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year Award. They played TOGETHER even though their respective communities in both Pakistan and Israel pressured them NOT to do so.

By doing so they resisted social injustice on behalf of themselves, Pakistan, Israel, the world of tennis and the world at large. We should all commend their efforts and perhaps applaud others who do the same.

The ITF Tennis

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untitledtThe ITF is an international body for the governing of all the tennis associations from all over the world. It came into existence in 1913 when an association was formed by twelve groups, called the International Lawn Tennis Federation. Originally based in Paris, the ITF tennis base moved to London during the Second World War II. It further got a name change in 1977 when the people over at ITF tennis realised the that all tennis is not played on grass and that the name was a misnomer. It has grown in status and magnitude over the years and it currently has a membership of 205 tennis associations from all over the world. It is the leading governing body for all tennis that is played internationally. It organises a variety of tournaments over a year, namely the four Grand Slams- the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Apart from these, it also holds national team competitions which include the Davis Cup, The Hopman Cup and the Fed Cup, for men, mixed and for women respectively. The ITF tennis is also primarily responsible for the maintenance of an under-18 junior tennis player’s circuit, both for boys as well as girls.