Doha: The 4th Qatar ITF Futures began yesterday at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
After two events that saw France’s Clement Reix hoist the champion’s trophy consecutive times, this week’s event will be guaranteed a new winner as the Frenchman is not in the draw for this week’s tournament.
The No. 1 seed, Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia, holds seven singles Futures titles, two of them coming this year in Thailand and Indonesia. Benjamin Balleret from Monaco is the No. 2 seed and hopes to have a stronger showing than in last week’s event where he lost in the first round. Oliver Golding of Great Britain is the No. 3 seed and the finalist from the 2nd Qatar ITF Futures. Other seeds include No. 4 Marek Semjan from Slovakia, No. 5 Roman Jebavy from the Czech Republic, No. 6 Abdullah Maqdas from Kuwait, No. 7 James Marsalek from Great Britain and No. 8 Francois-Arthur Vibert from France. Wildcards to the main draw have been given to Qatar players Jabor Ali Mutawa, Mousa Shanan Zayed, and Abdullah Al Mohamoud.
This is the final of three consecutive International Tennis Federation events that has been held in Doha over as many weeks.
Hosting these events allows the Qatar Tennis Federation (QTF) to showcase its place on the world tennis stage and bring international players to the region while providing an opportunity for members of the national team to play against a global field of athletes.
“The 4th Qatar ITF Futures event is the culmination of three weeks of tournaments that have highlighted our Qatari players as well as players from around the world. Matches have been of a consistently high standard and the athletes have shown great professionalism. It has been an honour for the QTF to host these tournaments and we look forward to more events of this caliber to be held here in the future,” Tournament Director, Saad Al Mohannadi, said.
Matches start at 4:00pm daily and admission is free.
The Peninsula
