A tournament matching the scope of the prestigious Philippine Columbian Association Open Tennis Championships is coming.
At stake in the netfest is P1.1 million when organizers of the PCA Open holds the Metro Manila Open this May.
The tournament will go on for three weeks, from May 6 to 28, at the PCA indoor shell court in Plaza Dilao, Paco.
Organizing Committee chairman and Mayor Jess Burahan of Panglima Tahil, Sulu, said they hope to attract potential players from the provinces and the countryside when they hold the tennis meet.
Categories include the men’s and women’s singles events, the age group levels, the men’s and women’s team age category events, the mixed doubles, the inter-collegiates, and the men’s and women’s doubles.
“The thrust of this tournament is to hold another major tournament, and extend help to tennis potentials in the Philippines,” said Burahan during Tuesday’s press conference.
The competitions will be the second to be organized by the Philippine Columbian Association.
They hope to hold the Metro Manila Open yearly, aside from the PCA Open, which recently finished its 39th staging.
Like the PCA Open, the men’s singles champion and runner up will be pocketing P200,000 and P100,000, respectively. The women’s titlist will get P100,00 and the losing finalist will receive P50,000.
“We talked about having this as the Manila Open. But we looked at Metro Manila because we wanted it to be bigger in scale,” said Burahan.
Burahan said that the reach of the netfest will now extend to the neighboring cities and provinces, and will open competitions to the grassroots level.