Did you know that JVT has 5 wonderful tennis courts spread across the different districts? You may have seen them, but something you could have missed was that a few weeks ago, these courts were put to good use for an Open tournament. Residents, but also people living outside JVT, were able to compete for the title of 2014 JVT Open Champion. I caught up with the organizer to find out more about this amazing event which took place earlier this month. Here is what they told me:

“After making the necessary arrangements with Active Sports (the company managing the court booking system and providing coaching), Nakheel, the Ministry of Sports and Tennis Emirates (the governing body for tennis in the UAE), we started inviting a few players we know in the country. In only a few days, we received 63 applications for players eager to test their skills on the court!” said John van Zuylen, organizer of the event.

Two categories were organized (men and ladies) at each of 2 skills levels. The tournament was spread over 2 weeks and took place on courts #3 and #4 which are located in what I call ‘JVT Central Park’. The interest for the tournament reached much further than the organizers had anticipated.

Among the players were Sanjana Sudhir (UAE #1, and Junior #366 in the world), Luciana Rabines (UAE #2, and Junior #610 in the world), Amr Hazem (Senior #69 in the world), Adel Ghazzawi (former Davis Cup player for KSA), Oleg Geraskin (former Ukraine National Champion) and Haseeb Aslam (former #1 and Davis Cup player for Pakistan) to cite a few. The 2 weeks finished with the big finals on Saturday March 8.

In the Men’s Main Draw, Amr Hazem (the favorite) took the upperhand 6/2 6/4 on promising 14-year old Dhruv Bahl, who had cruised through the tournament with ease and class.

In the Ladies Main Draw, rankings were respected as well with Sanjana Sudhir beating Luciana Rabines 6/3 6/7 7/6 in an historic 4h25match!

During the 2 weeks, more and more curious JVT residents dropped by and stayed to watch some matches. On the day of the finals, there were around 40 spectators supporting the finalists, and that definitely made this “tennis party” even better.

The organizers would like to say a big thank you to all residents who came to watch some games. They also thank everyone for their patience and flexibility with the court bookings: courts were sometimes hard to get during these weeks and everyone understood it was for a good cause.

The JVT Community Blog will certainly be informed when the next event gets scheduled and we’ll be sure to let everyone know.

Looking forward to the 2015 edition which we hope will be an even bigger success, with more JVT-based players and hopefully winners!

(Pictures can be viewed on an earlier post.)