John McEnroe, Mats Wilander and Jim Courier are just some of the past tennis stars who from today will be entertaining fans in Grand Cayman.
McEnroe is an all-time great. Photo: AP |
McEnroe is lined up for a tournament at the Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman starting today. The legendary coach Nick Bollettieri will also be around to impact some pearls of wisdom.
It’s organised by New York based company InsideOut Sports & Entertainment. It’s all happening at The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman Legends Championships. The players will be at various locations around the island as well.
InsideOut also announced the round-robin group pairings and match schedule for the clay-court event, one of the two new events on the 2008 Outback Champions Series tennis circuit.
Mats Wilander joins fellow world No.1 players McEnroe and Courier as well as former US Davis Cup standout Jimmy Arias in Group A, while Paul Haarhuis, the Outback Dubai tournament winner last year, and Mikael Pernfors are in Group B along with Todd Martin, the year-end No.1 in the 2007 Stanford Champions Rankings, and Olympic silver medalist Wayne Ferreira.
Grand Cayman’s Residences is the second of eight events on this year’s Outback Champions Series, a collection of tennis events around the world featuring the greatest names in tennis over the age of 30.
The event features $150,000 in prize money with an undefeated winner taking home $54,000. Players also compete for Champions Series points that will determine the Stanford Champions Rankings year-end No. 1 and the winner of a $100,000 year-end bonus.
All Champions Series events feature eight-man round-robin match formats with the winner of each four-player division meeting in the title match while second place finishers in each division meet in the third-place match.
Rob Seward is the pro at the Cayman Islands Tennis Club in South Sound.
He said: ‘There is a big buzz in tennis circles in Cayman because we’ve got three No.1s coming to the island. I think this is the first time that Cayman’s held this kind of event. This is a step in the right direction for the Cayman Islands.
‘The members are very excited because in the past we’ve been lucky enough to have some pros come down here.
‘Jim Courier came years ago, also Jimmy Arias, Johan Kriek, Aaron Krickstein, Patrick McEnroe and Cayman’s Nigel Mitten. Are we lucky enough to have them come down? Yes. Should they come down more often? Yes. It’s a great climate.
‘Wednesday we have a clinic with the pros from the Legends. Courier, Todd Martin and a few others. That’ll run from 10-11am. Thursday all the pros are going to have a pro am. That’s 10 till 11.30am with Courier, Martin and all the pros. Friday is the sponsors clinic from 10 to 11am. Saturday is a great day for the kids at the Ritz.’
Courier will find time to visit John Gray High School and Cayman Prep during his stay here.
Courier is over for the Legends tournament that includes John McEnroe and Mats Wilander. Legendary coach Nick Bollettieri is likely to join in too.
The Cayman Islands Tennis Association has organised the visits to help inspire youngsters to take up the game.
Association president Jeremy Superfine said: ‘As part of our five year plan we want to encourage schools to play tennis during school time and after school.
‘Facilities are lacking in most schools but we want to get the message across that tennis is great fun and you can play even without a court.
‘We will be issuing mini bats, balls and a net to each school that Jim attends and we’d like him to encourage the use of this equipment.
‘We’re sure Jim has done this kind of thing many times before and will know how to pitch his talk. We have 45 minutes at the second school with lots of students so Jim may like to have Nick Bollettieri attend as well and they can talk with each other which may also be entertaining.
‘We’re excited about this kick-start to our schools programme.
Courier will visit the John Gray High School at 1.15pm on Thursday. He’ll meet with a small group of students for around 30 minutes where he’ll discuss his tennis career. Students will also ask any questions that they might have.
At 2pm he’ll visit Cayman Prep and meet with about 75 students in the assembly hall for about 45 minutes.
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