Top local netters gear up for $75,000 tournament

The Philippines will stage a $75,000 ITF Challenger tournament that will pit top-caliber players against the country’s best netters on Jan. 18 to 23 at Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

It is easily the biggest purse ever in local tennis and will break ground for local stars like Jeson Patrombon, Francis Casey Alcantara and Alberto Lim Jr., who are expected to gain wild-card entries. The qualifying round will start on Jan. 15.

The tournament, organized by Sports Events Entertainment Management Inc., headed by Jean Henri Lhuillier, put together the event featuring rising players like World No. 121 Radu Albot of Moldova, Andrea Arnaboldi of Italy (158th), Nikolos Basilashvili of Georgia (113th) and Kimmer Koppejans of Belgium (130).

Last year, the country hosted two $15,000 ITF meets at Valle Verde and Philippine Columbian Association.

Alcantara reached the quarterfinals in singles in the ITF tournament held at PCA. He later paired with Johnny Arcilla to bag the doubles crown.

Alcantara, Arcilla and Patrombon also earned world ranking points following their stints in the twin events.

The last time the Philippines staged a higher-tier ITF event was in 1991, when Manila staged a $50,000 tournament.

Lhuillier, also chair of the Philippine Tennis Association, said the meet is in line with their goal to bring world-class tournaments to the country, which he said costs less than sending players abroad. The Philippines has been staging one or two ITF Futures events.

Also slated to see action are Japanese Tatsuma Ito (119th), Go Soeda (132nd) and Yuichi Sugita (126th), Italian Luca Vanni (106th), Indonesian Somdev Devvarman (177th) and American Jared Donaldson (134th).