KUCHING (March 17): Various participating teams have expressed satisfaction with how the back-to-back Asia Oceania Pre-Qualifying for the Billie Jean King Cup Juniors (BJKCJ) and Davis Cup Juniors (DCJ) have been organised here in the past two weeks.

“ITF and ATF have a long history of hosting events in Malaysia and especially Kuching because of the very organised and well managed events team at SLTA.

“They take care of small details and the tournaments are always very smooth. The large staff and volunteers are always very friendly and welcoming, and Kuching is like a breath of fresh air – literally for those who come from big cities – for teams, players and parents,” said ITP Representative Jonathan Stubbs.

“We are very happy with the hosting provided by SLTA and Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia,” he added.

ITF tournament referee Sina Ebrahimian, who hails from Iran, said he enjoyed his first assignment to Kuching, Sarawak and Malaysia.

“They (organising committee) really take care of the players, they are always present to answer questions and solve problems.

“Everything went on smoothly last week and this week we were very lucky that there was only one day that we couldn’t complete play due to weather conditions,” he told The Borneo Post.

“I would give a rating of four or four plus out of five for the running of these two tournaments, the facilities, food, accommodation and the officiating,” he added.

Sina highlighted that the most important thing was the good arrangement of transportation for 14 teams for the Billie Jean King Cup Juniors and 22 teams for the Davis Cup Juniors.

Meanwhile, organising chairman and technical director Dato Patrick Liew Chin Joon said SLTA always tries its best to ensure every tournament is run smoothly and the players all enjoyed playing tennis in Kuching.

“It is always very challenging and very tough to organise tournaments like this but we always manage to complete the competitions on time and we accept and enjoy the challenge to organise events successfully.

“Further more, we are organising the two qualifying tournaments in the month of Ramadhan (fasting month) where we had to make some adjustments in the timing in the morning and evening, make the necessary adjustments for food arrangements for the ‘sahur’ and ‘break fast’ time.

“The tournaments have also generated a spin-off of about RM1 million to the tourism related industries and sectors,” added Liew who is also SLTA president.

After a short break the association will be organising another back-to-back tournaments for the Asia-Oceania Final Qualifying for World Junior Team Competition (Boys) and Asia-Oceania Final Qualifying for World Junior Team Competition (Girls) from Mar 31 to April 14.