Opening of Liamuiga Oualie World Junior Tennis Tournament

Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 25, 2019 (ZIZ News): Tennis players from all over the world converged at Government House to mark the start of the Liamuiga Oualie World Junior Tennis Tournament in a ceremony on Saturday.

The 7-day tournament will see players from countries such as the USA, Canada, Mexico and France. There are also players from the region which include St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada and Barbados.

Director of Sports, Anthony Wiltshire said in his opening remarks that tennis is a sport for all noting that it gives persons the opportunity to play sports.

“Tennis is a sport for all because Sir Kennedy in his 80s is still actively involved in tennis, the smallest of children can be involved in tennis, the middle aged and it has no class distinction because whether you’re poor, whether you’re rich, you can participate and that is what we want to be happening around us that all would have an opportunity to play sports.”

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sport, Tom Buchanan spoke on behalf of the Minister of Sport, the Hon. Shawn Richards and he explained that the tournament is an opportunity to diversify sports in St. Kitts and Nevis.

“When I was approached by President Mr. Chiverton about this initiative a couple of months ago, this wasn’t something that was on our plan of activities for 2019 but I couldn’t resist but to approve it and support it for a very simple reason because it was a moment for us to diversify sports, our sports portfolio in St. Kitts and Nevis. We’ve been playing cricket for many years, we’ve been playing football, basketball, volleyball and a couple more traditional sports but tennis wasn’t one of those sports that we continue to play.”

The tournament officially began on Saturday November 23rd and will continue until Saturday November 30th 2019. The tournament is being held at the Warner Park Tennis Complex at 8:30AM daily.