The Sultanate veteran tennis team players are set to commence their participation at the seventh edition of the Arabian Veteran Tennis Championship which will begin on Saturday at tennis courts of the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.
As many as 200 players from 14 nations will take part at the top Arabian level senior tennis event including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria, Libya, Lebanon, Palestine and the hosts Oman.
Oman’s veteran players are in their final warm up sessions to reach their best level of readiness prior to the kick off of the competition on Saturday. The hosts Oman will participate with many players in the tournament including Salim Abubaker, Ayman Said, Madani al Bakri, Abdullah Sali, Mohammed al Amri, Ayman al Hasani, Tamam al Asfoor, Mukhtar Mohammed, Hamood Sangoor al Zadjali, Ahmed al Saidi, Mohammed Hamood al Zadjali, Ali Kamal Dawood, Modrek Nadhim, Ahmed Hassan al Dheeb, Samaan Jameel Karam and Khalfan al Obaidani.
Bahrain team comprises the following players: Hassan al Makhraq, Ahmed Omran, Abdul Hussain Nashabah, Faisal Sharaf, Khalid Janahi, Mohammed Abu Hassan, Mohammed Abu Mirza and Abdul Latif Mohammed.
The official draw of the championship will start at 6 pm on Friday at Al Murouj Hotel in Al Khuwair. Prior to the draw, the technical meeting will be held in presence of Saudi’s referee Yousef al Turaif and members of the committee in presence of the team’s representatives.
The ranking of the registered players in the championship will be based on the results of last edition which occurred in Baghdad city, Iraq. The players who achieved top places will be at the top of the group including Majeed al Asfoor from the Sultanate team who was the runner up. All the matches of the championship will finish within three groups while the first group consist of four rounds only and the third group will be out of seven points. The tournament will comprise eleven competitions including singles and doubles for men and women. There will be different senior categories which was witnessed from 35 years, 44 years, 55 years, 64 years and above. All the matches will be played in knockout stages style.
The competitions of the championship will begin on Saturday at two sessions including morning session from 9 am to 12 pm while the evening session will be from 4 pm to 8 pm. The opening ceremony of the Arabian Veteran Tennis Championship will be on Sunday at 10 am under the auspices of Dr Abdullah Mohammed al Saeedi, the Minister of Legal Affairs in presence of dignitaries and officials.
On the other hand, and as part of the championship, an umpiring course began on Thursday at Majan Continental Hotel in Bausher in presence of many umpires.
The course which was presented by Saudi’s international referee Yousef al Turaif, will conclude on Friday. The referee workshop focused on different topics including a brief introduction on the International Tennis Federation (ITF), showing different umpiring cases and reviewing the right decisions to be taken. Also, the first day course discussed some related common scenarios which required an immediate and accurate decisions and the right practice on that.
Saudi’s international referee Yousef al Turaif expressed his full satisfactory on the venue of the tournament. “I have visited the tennis courts and they are built as per the international requirements. Oman is well known in hosting top tennis events and they hosted last year the Davis Cup which is ranked as one of the top class events,” he added.
Commenting on the umpiring workshop and Oman’s referee performance, he said: “There are many experienced umpires in the Sultanate. Some of them are holders of the international certificates and licenses. During the course, I tried to transfer the main umpiring deliverables to the referees which they support them to perform well during the competitions,” he concluded.
The participants of the referee course featured many senior and experienced umpires from the Sultanate and abroad including: Mohammed al Falahi, Abdullah al Yahyaei, Wareth al Shaibani, Abdullah al Awadi, AbdulMalik al Oufi, Abdul Rahman al Hajri, Yahya al Kharousi, Ahmed al Bahrani, Azhar al Bahrani, Amani Hassan and Musallam al Harbi.
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