BEACH tennis is a must in the coming summer months when the International Tennis Federation (ITF) circuit will be running in South Africa’s coastal areas.
The launch of the Tennis South Africa (TSA) beach tennis circuit took place on October 24.
TSA and Kia Motors have partnered for this high-profile ITF event circuit in December 2018.
The Kia Summer Slam beach tennis tour was supported by plenty of athletes from other sporting codes, including Erin Burger and Lenize Potgieter from Netball South Africa (NSA), Wihan Lubbe and Aaron Phangiso from Bizhub Highveld Lions, and Grant Thomson and Wandile Makwetu from Multiply Titans.
Photo: Annette van Schalkwyk
The event will take place over two weeks.
Four of the events that make up the Kia Summer Slam beach tennis tour will be ITF ranking tournaments, coupled with a total prize money pot in excess of $35 000 (about R509 000).
The crowds will witness some of the world’s best beach tennis players on South African shores.
The final event, in Plettenberg Bay, will be one of the five richest beach tennis events in the world in terms of prize money.
The circuit will start on December 8 at St Francis and Cape St Francis, move to Knysna on December 12 and finish on December 15 onwards in Plettenberg Bay.
“We are delighted to see Kia Motors extend their support of local tennis with this exciting new three-year partnership. We have built up a great working relationship around their Davis Cup team sponsorship, and their involvement in beach tennis promises to be even more exciting,” said TSA CEO Richard Glover. “Beach tennis is a fun and simplified version of tennis and offers a great entry point into our sport for first-time players. Indeed, we see the format as being a powerful tool for tennis development.”
Over and above the high-profile December events, the new partnership will also see beach tennis courts being built at existing TSA Growthpoint development centres in Soweto, Atteridgeville, eThekwini and Cape Town, respectively.
David Sieff, marketing director at Kia Motors South Africa, is excited to extend the involvement of Kia Motors in tennis.
“Kia Motors has a long-standing association with tennis globally through the Australian Open, but also locally through our association with Team South Africa and Davis Cup,” he said. “We are very excited to now extend our partnership to beach tennis. It’s a fun and fresh format that is open to everyone, regardless of experience or skills. More than that, it is absolutely action-packed! We look forward to seeing South African holidaymakers putting their skills to the test against some of the best in the world.”
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