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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Ladies of Dreamland
By Nashwa Abdel-TawabFirst there were the exceptionally successful tennis exhibition matches held late last year. And now for the real thing: the first Women's Tennis Association tour event ever held in Egypt and the Middle East. The tournament, to take place from 19-25 April, finally puts Egypt firmly on the world tennis map.
Out of 150 players asked to participate in the championship, only 51 will be chosen: 23 in the main draw and 28 in the preliminary draw. The federation offered three players a wild card: Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, the top seeded player in the tournament and ranked No 7 in the world; Jelena Dokic from Australia, the youngest player in the tournament at 14 and Bahia Mohtasenee, Morocco's best and ranked 224.
In the main singles draw, 22 of the players are ranked above 100. Among them, five are in the top 20: Spain's Sanchez-Vicario, eighth ranked Mary Pierce from France, Sandrine Testud from France, ranked 12, 15th ranked Irina Spirlea from Romania and Natasha Zvereva from Bulgaria, ranked 17 in the world. The competition entails singles and doubles events.
Total prize money is $180,000 -- $143,250 to be divided among the players plus $36,750 for the WTA.
The tournament, which will be held for five years before it is evaluated by the WTA, was the brainchild of the Egyptian Tennis Federation. The Supreme Council for Youth and Sports agreed to a preliminary fund and Egyptian business magnate Ahmed Bahgat, a former handball and volleyball player in Ahli club, will be the title sponsor. On 8 March, the competition became reality when it was officially announced during play in the Indian Wells Championship.
It was hard to find a week in the crowded tennis calendar season in which the tournament could be held. "We found a suitable week, although it conflicted with the Budapest Open," said Mohamed Halawa, president of the Egyptian Tennis Federation. The Budapest Open offers $134,000 in prize money so, said Halawa, "we upped our prize money to $180,000 to attract higher-ranked players. We wanted to increase it even more but due to WTA regulations, we couldn't." However, Halawa added that the federation would like to host a world series week for men for $450,000, and is awaiting the green light. "Men's competitions are more difficult to host because the prize money is higher," Halawa said.
Arancha Sanchez
photo: Khaled El-Fiqi
The site of the women's tournament will be the 6th of October City, at the Dreamland clay courts -- four for training, three for playing on and the centre court which can hold 4,200 people. The stadium overlooks the Pyramids and Dreamland's golf course, the biggest in the Middle East. At the WTA's request a rest room, changing room, gymnasium, restaurant, referees' room, a press centre, a clinic and a WTA office were all set up in record time. Finishing touches to centre court are to be added tomorrow.
Amr Kamal, an assistant in Dreamland's sales and marketing department, said that following the competition the stadium will be taken down and rebuilt to look like Wimbledon, with a seating capacity of 5,200 spectators.
The competition affords Egyptian tennis fans the opportunity to see up close some of the world's top women players in action. Watching good tennis, observers say, could end up producing good players. Moreover, the event is seen as a way of publicising satellite cities like the 6th of October and attracting spectators to sports championships held in emptier spaces.
Al-Ahram Organisation sponsored four successive squash tournaments followed by last year's women's tennis exhibition which featured, among others, Sanchez-Vicario and Russian teenage sensation Anna Kournikova. As successful as the exhibition games were, the general consensus was that more serious tournaments were in order. The one major obstacle to this goal has always seemed to be funding.
Emulating Martin Luther King, Bahgat revealed what he truly hopes for. "I have a dream that green valleys, roses, rivers and waterfalls will invade the vast desert," the tycoon said. "I have a dream that sports will see a revival and athletes will raise Egypt's name high with their outstanding victories." Bahgat's dreams may partially at least be coming true. .
