The 2012 PWC Men’s Invitational Championships begins on Tuesday 31 January at The Cayman Islands Tennis Club.
This year’s field of participants could make this the most competitive tournament that have ever played in Cayman – even more competitive than last year’s pwc tournament. The matches begin at 5.30pm in South Sound and continue every evening throughout the week. The finals will be played on Saturday 4 February. All tennis fans are welcome to watch the Island’s most competitive tournament every night free of charge.
The PWC Men’s Invitational Championships have US$10,000 worth of prize money and is in its sixth staging. According to tournament director Rob Seward, this year’s tournament boasts the toughest field ever. “It is fantastic to have a tournament in the last three years that has had the past champion come back to defend their title; and although we have not had two of the same champions in consecutive years we have been able to bring new champions and other players that have been able to enjoy what the Cayman Islands has to offer.”
Last year’s Champion, Marcio Torres, who was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is trying to defend his title against some of the Association of Tennis Professional ranked international players as well as some of the top regional players in the Caribbean from Jamaica, Barbados and Bahamas. Torres is one of the favourites because of his past victory in Cayman.
Torres attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Last year he defeated his teammate from university at Greensboro, Tony Mule who gained the title from past ATP Player Juan Rios in the 2010 PWC. Torres turned pro in 2003 and has steadily climbed the doubles rankings. He earned his top ATP ranking so far in April 2008 when he reached 134. He is currently participating in tennis tournaments around the world and resides in Florida.
The men’s singles winner will walk away with US$2,500 and the beaten finalist, US$1,250, while semi-finalists get to take home US$500 each and US$250 will go to each quarter-finalist.
For the doubles competition, US$2,000 will be awarded to the winning team and US$1,000 to the runners-up, with the semi-finalists receiving US$500 each.
Stefano Ianni, from Italy, will be making his first appearance in Cayman. Ianni, who has been ranked in the top 300 in the world as a singles player and reached a 182 personal best in the world in doubles could possibly be the biggest challenge to Torres. Others that will be making their first trip to the Cayman Islands will be Haydn Lewis from Barbados and Marvin Rolle from the Bahamas, who were both respectively ranked on the ATP tour.
Three local Caymanian players will also be participating in the tournament this year; Nikhil Jha, Mica Koll and youngster, Alex Leonard. They are all past and current juniors who have participated in the After School Junior programme at The Cayman Islands Tennis Club in South Sound.
Four local Island pros will be competing too. The two South Africans, Dale Avery and Adam Bayley will be representing The Cayman Islands Tennis Club. They have coached Alex Leonard. They will compete for the title alongside, local Ritz pro, Ilian Nachev.
Three top Jamaicans will be looking to claim the title. It will not be easy for there will be 13 other players competing for the same goal. Yussuf Migoko, Jamaica’s number two Davis Cup player, will be leading the Jamaican field along with the crew from Montego Bay of Marcus Malcolm and McCoy Malcolm.
Seward said: “The Cayman Islands Tennis Club expresses their deepest gratitude to PWC, the main sponsor of the tournament. This will be their sixth year sponsoring the event and without them it would have been impossible to stage such a successful tournament. We’re also very excited to have Cayman National for a first year of sponsoring.”
Related Videos
