The sport of beach tennis is set to flourish with the news that KIA Motors South Africa have partnered with Tennis South Africa (TSA) to launch a high-profile International Tennis Federation (ITF) event circuit in December 2018.
Hosted at George Lea Park, Sandton, the partnership announcement and press launch of the KIA Summer Slam beach tennis tour on Wednesday, 24 October, was supported by plenty of athletes from other sporting codes, including Erin Burger and Lenize Potgieter from SA Netball; Wihan Lubbe and Aaron Phangiso from bizhub Highveld Lions as well as Grant Thomson and Wandile Makwetu from Multiply Titans.
Spanning two weeks, the four events that make up the KIA Summer Slam beach tennis tour will all be ITF ranking tournaments and, coupled with a total prize money pot in excess of $35 000, the crowds will witness some of the world’s best beach tennis players on the South African shores. The final event, in Plettenberg Bay, will be one of the five richest beach tennis events in the world in terms of prize money.
David Sieff, Marketing Director, KIA Motors South Africa is excited to extend the involvement of KIA Motors in tennis. “KIA Motors has a longstanding association with tennis globally through the Australian Open, but also locally through our association with Team South Africa and Davis Cup,” he says. “We are very excited to now extend our partnership to beach tennis. It’s a fun and fresh format that is open to everyone, regardless of experience or skills. More than that, it is absolutely action packed! We look forward to seeing South African holidaymakers putting their skills to test against some of the best in the world.”
Over and above the high-profile December events, the new partnership will also see beach tennis courts being built at existing TSA Growthpoint development centres – in Soweto, Atteridgeville, eThekwini and Cape Town, respectively.
“We are delighted to see KIA Motors extend their support of local tennis with this exciting new three-year partnership. We have built up a great working relationship around their Davis Cup team sponsorship and their involvement in beach tennis promises to be even more exciting,” says TSA CEO, Richard Glover. “Beach tennis is a fun and simplified version of tennis and offers a great entry point into our sport for first time players. Indeed, we see the format as being a powerful tool for tennis development.”
The KIA Summer Slam beach tennis tour will take place as follows:
– 8-10 December 2018: St Francis & Cape St Francis Prize money: $2500.
– 12-14 December 2018: Knysna Prize money: $2500.
– 15-18 December 2018: Plettenberg Bay Prize money: $6500.
– 18-21 December 2018: Plettenberg Bay Prize money: $25000.
The entry form is available online via:
https://www.beachtennis.io/international?month=december
Provided by KIA South Africa
