Jersey to be top UK indoor venue for tennis 06/11/2008 |
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Jersey is set to become the UK's leading venue for indoor tennis in 2009 after securing two tournaments.
The island's Les Ormes tennis centre will host two of the UK's four ATP Challenger tournaments next year with £95,000 of prize money.
The island will host a £32,000 men's and £16,000 women's event in March and again in November next year.
"It's a great chance for the island to show how well it can put on tennis events," said organiser Hugh Raymond.
The events are likely to attract players ranked anywhere up to the top 50 in the world.
And Raymond, who is the head of the Channel Islands Lawn Tennis Association, says there is scope to re-design the Les Ormes tennis centre to create a show court which would be able to seat hundreds of spectators.
"We're in the process of talking about a stadium court," he said.
"We could combine the area where courts one and two currently are and put one court in the centre with mini-tennis areas around it."
And Raymond feels that there is the interest in the island to sustain even larger events in the future.
"We've done these events and the question is 'does Jersey want it?' and 'can we do it?'
"I think Jersey wants it. If it gets people into the island and it gets Jersey mentioned then it's great news."
Les Ormes hosts a £19,000 men's tournament from 10-16 November with Australian world number 100 Chris Guccione heading the list of entrants.
Also competing will be British Davis Cup players Alex Bogdanovic and Joshua Goodall.
The pair are no strangers to Jersey, having both been part of the Caesarean Tennis Club's team which won the national clubs championship in 2004.
(Source: BBC Sport)
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