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PRESS
RELEASE 3rd MARCH 2004
The
Saturday Club will be hosting the US $10,000 ONGC ITF
Futures Men's Tennis Tournament, from March 6th - 14th,
2004. The sport loving people of Kolkata will have a
rare opportunity to watch and enjoy world class tennis
players in action.
The tournament will include both singles and doubles.
The qualifying rounds will be held on March 6th-7th,
2004. The main rounds will be held from March 8th -14th,
2004. The matches will start from 9.00 a.m. onwards. The
finals will be held on March 14th, 2004 from 11.00
a.m. onwards.
The ITF Futures Men's Tournament provides the entry
level of professional tournaments, enabling players to
eventually reach the higher level tournaments on the ATP
Tour. The International Tennis Federation started the
Futures tournament in 1998. In fact the very first
Futures tournament was held in India. Most of the top
tennis players of the world today, have participated in
the Futures in the early part of their career.
The ONGC ITF Futures Tennis Tournament carries a total
prize money of US $10,000. The singles winner will take
home US $1300 and the runners-up will get US $900. The
winning doubles pair will earn US $630 and the
runners-up will get US $330.
Besides the prize money valuable ATP points will be at
stake. The singles winner will earn 12 ATP singles
points and the runners up will earn 8 ATP singles
points. The winning doubles team will get 12 ATP doubles
points, the runners up will be earning 8 ATP doubles
point.
The ONGC ITF Futures Tennis Tournament will have 40
foreign players competing with their Indian
counterparts. The singles top seed is Todar Enev from
Bulgaria, ranked 298th on the ATP players list. The
Indian challenge will be lead by the third seeded Rohan
Boppana, ranked 380th in the world. Among other Indian
players in the fray are Sunil Kumar Sipeya, Mustafa
Ghouse, Vijay Kannan, and Vinod Sridhar.
The ITF supervisors for the tournament are Mr. Puneet
Gupta and Mr. Nitin Kannawar. The tournament doctor is
Dr. Manoj Saha.
We would like to thank the following sponsors for their
patronage.
1. ONGC, who are the Title Sponsor of the tournament.
2. The co-sponsors, National Insurance Co. Ltd.
3. The associate sponsors, Hutchinson Telecom Ltd
(Hutch), and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
Jaidip Mukerjea
(Tournament Director)
3rd March 2004
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