KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 —Tennis is the No 1 racquet sport in the world, but in Malaysia it plays fourth fiddle to badminton, squash and table tennis in the player-attraction stakes.
Its popularity has dwindled since the late 1990’s, partly due to a dysfunctional national governing body and a lack of exposure at school level.
Tennis is such a compelling game that even non-playing fans flock to stadiums to catch a glimpse of the captivating professional players.
As such, Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) reached out to the media to re-ignite the passion for a game that has huge marketing potential.
“We understand tennis has been in the doldrums,” said LTAM president Mirzan Mahathir.
“Perhaps it is a lack of icons that is preventing our youth from picking up the game or the lack of knowledge and access to the facilities and coaching.
“We do not have a (Lee) Chong Wei or Nicol David. We lack many things pertaining to the growth of the game. But we want to lay the foundations for tennis to grow,” explained Mirzan.
Knowing this, LTAM announced their calendar for the year and the good news is there will be one junior tournament per month — from February until November — except during Ramadan.
There were only four competitions last year.
Beginning with this month’s leg in Selangor, it continues in Johor, Kelantan, Pahang, Kuala Lumpur, Terengganu, Sabah and Kedah.
The top eight players will qualify for the Masters tournament in Kuala Lumpur from Nov 21 to 25.
It’s not as many as Thailand who have close to 50 junior tournaments per year, but it is a start.
Genting Malaysia are the new title sponsors for the national circuit which will be called the Genting Tennis Malaysia National Circuit, while Dunlop will provide balls for two years and AirAsia are the official airlines.
They’ve also lined up a programme called “First Serve” where they give free lessons to anyone interested in learning the game, in hopes they in turn will spread the game to others.
The first workshop was conducted in Ipoh recently with 240 participants.
“It’s a start but the response was overwhelming,” said a delighted Mirzan.
“We’re going to different states in the near future but we need help publicising it.
“We are getting the state associations to be proactive and we’re looking for more sponsors to share our goals.”
With the WTA Malaysian Open just around the corner, it’s a shame none of our girls were granted a wild card for the singles main draw.
Such is the gulf in standards we’re dealing with.
That’s why the most impassioned words came from LTAM secretary, Rahizam Rahim.
“We need help, we need publicity and we need to learn how to do it,” said Rahizam.
“We are open to any ideas and suggestions the media may have and we want to do better.”
