Sandakan hosting Sabah Inter-Affiliates Tennis Junior Tournament
KOTA KINABALU: The 32nd Sabah Inter-Affiliates Tennis Tournament for Junior category is ongoing in Sandakan.
The special tournament has a new format this year as Sabah Tennis Association (STA) wanted to give more emphasis on the development of junior tennis in the state.
To start off the tournament, the Team event got underway two days ago to be followed by the Individual competition.
However, there were setbacks to the Team competition as the matches were interrupted by intermittent morning rain since the opening day.
“Some matches were affected but organisers SDTA (Sandakan District Tennis Association) managed to catch up with the schedule in the afternoon and evening.
“There were some problems too due to some students having other programmes during the term holidays,” STA president Johnson Koh said in a statement yesterday.
Koh also expressed dissatisfaction with STA affiliates who did not send teams to the tournament.
“After arguing their case to have this separate tournament, they are the ones who did not participate.
“Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Tawau took part in the girls’ category while only Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau sent their boys’ teams,” he added.
Despite that, Koh advised the teams to continue with their junior development programmes at the team managers’ meeting.
“STA will assist when they hold their tournament or activities,” Koh assured while adding that the Individual event will start on March 21 as the first leg of STA Junior tournament.
Some of the junior players to watch in the tournaments are Mohd Azhan Arsad of Tawau, Keval Raj Singh of Kota Kinabalu and Nik Ahmad Zharfan of Tawau in the boys’ category.
As for the girls’ competition, Sabah Games (Saga) 2016 winner Clarisa Sofia of Kota Kinabalu, Shazana Arsad of Tawau and Azlien Natasya of Lahad Datu will be the players to beat.