Former PM to speak at Legends Tennis

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair will be the guest speaker at the opening gala dinner of the KPMG Legends Tennis Tournament on 16 November. 

The announcement was made by Mike Ryan, owner and developer of The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, at a press conference on Wednesday morning.  

“The biggest announcement this year that really underpins the crossover between sports tourism and our finance sector is combining the event with having a great world leader and speaker coming down as part of the event, so we’re pleased to announce that Tony Blair, former prime minister of the UK and envoy to the Middle East will be coming down as part of the event, meeting people and having a special dinner where he will be giving a speech and taking questions,” said Mr. Ryan. 

This will be the first visit to Cayman by Mr. Blair, who served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007.  

“It really helps the finance community engage and says in the broadest possible way that this is a world class event that has something that appeals to all different aspects of Cayman’s society and Cayman’s economy,” said Mr. Ryan. 

Premier McKeeva Bush congratulated the organisers of the tournament on securing a guest speaker the calibre of Mr. Blair and said he was looking forward to finally meeting him. 

“Congratulations on gaining the participation of Mr. Blair. Such a distinguished guest speaker can only add another dimension and prestige to an already celebrated event,” said Mr. Bush. The opening dinner will be one of many innovations in an event that promises numerous changes from previous editions, including much greater community involvement. “What we tried to do this year was listen to the feedback that we’ve had over the various years about what were the things that people particularly liked and what were some things that we could improve on and how could we really make it a broader event that engaged more of the community,” said Mr. Ryan. As part of the expansion of the tournament, some of the all time great female legends like Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati will compete at the event, along with returning players like Mark Philippoussis, Jimmy Arias and Wayne Ferreira. The tournament will also give local players the opportunity to become involved, with four local pros receiving wildcard entries into the tournament, as well as an amateur tournament, which will see the top two progress to play in the Legends tournament. There will also be a junior tournament, with the top six juniors playing the opening matches each evening of the Legends tournament. 

“We’re doing things to make it more accessible to the rest of the community – there will be more than 2,000 free tickets given out to the schools kids to try and expose them. The more we can get our youth involved the better it is,” said Mr. Ryan. 

The Cayman Islands Crisis Centre as well as the junior programme of the Tennis Federation of the Cayman Islands stand to benefit from the event. 

“The one aspect of this tournament that we can all appreciate is that it is a non-profit event, produced in the spirit of giving back to our community. The benefits of Legends Tennis go beyond tourism though. This tournament is also a fundraiser that helps women in distress and supports young tennis players,” said Mr. Bush. 

Cayman Financial Review, a Cayman Free Press publication, is one of the sponsors of the event.