The highly anticipated Guyana Lawn Tennis Association (GLTA) Nigel’s Supermarket Junior Classic Tennis Tournament will begin this Saturday at the Pegasus Hotel Tennis Courts.
Running from 8:00 – 15:00 hours each day, following this weekend’s matches the event is expected to continue each subsequent weekend until the tourney boils down to the final matches on October 30 – 31.
Ongoing since 2004, the tournament has been continuously sponsored by Nigel’s Supermarket as an annual feature on the GLTA’s tennis calendar
However, this year it brings special meaning to the company as it coincides with the supermarket’s celebration of its 25th anniversary.
Known to attract Guyana’s top notch junior players, this year the tournament will extend its reach to include an under-10 category of mini-tennis to facilitate the participation of the youngest grassroots players in the Primary Schools Tennis Initiative Programme.
The competition will feature three other individual categories for males and females, the under-18, under-14 and under-12 categories, while there will be a junior mixed doubles as a team event.
There will be round-robin matches in the preliminary round with the top two players from each group advancing to the elimination stages.
As usual, a high standard of competition is expected especially in the boys U-14s where top players Gavin Lewis, Daniel Lopes, Benedict Sukra and Khalid Gobin will compete at that level for the last time.
In the girls U-18s Shawna Gentle, Krystal Sukra, and Aruna Ramrattan will also battle it out for the top spot. Meanwhile players are being encouraged to sign up early for the event and registration will close today.
This year Nigel’s was represented by its Marketing Executive Nicole Waldron who handed over the company’s sponsorship cheque to GLTA Public Relations Officer Sandeep Chand at a brief presentation ceremony at the company’s location earlier this week.
At the presentation, Waldron expressed the supermarket’s commitment to junior tennis development in Guyana.
And also present at the ceremony was the GLTA chairperson for Junior Development, Grace McCalman, who congratulated Nigel’s Supermarket on its 25th anniversary and expressed joy that the GLTA was celebrating this great achievement with the company.
She noted that it was Nigel’s that had first sponsored the national junior tournaments in 2004, when the association was re-established and since then it has assisted with the development of many of the leading junior players.