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October 18 - The optimism amongst tennis professionals and organizers seems almost tangible these days, in the time leading up to the South African Tennis Open event.
In its heydays, this event was seen as one of the top tennis tournaments in the world. In the 1970's and early 80's, top seeded players fought to attend this event and the South African Tennis Association (SATA) is hoping to return to those glory days.
The Association decided that in order to bring in the crowds and woo top players, it would need to find a new home for the event and it was recently revealed that new courts are being built at the popular Gautang gambling and entertainment resort, Montecasino.
The Chief Executive of SATA, Ian Smith, was excited about the developments at Montecasino, where plans are already underway for the construction of four brand new courts, two of them show courts. Smith is adamant that, without a doubt, the courts will be ready in time for the South African Tennis Open this coming February.
"Although everything has to be done from scratch," said Smith, "the blueprint and timetable for the new complex are all going according to plan."
Next year's event will restore the South African Open to the main APT circuit, after it regained Challenger status when it was reintroduced by the South African Tennis Association two years ago.
Smith said that the aim of SATA is to eventually restore the event to Masters status.
But what has really excited the South African tennis world is the fact that next year's event has attracted several top names in the industry. Already, fifteenth seeded Jo-Wilfrid Tsonga and fifth ranked David Ferrer have signed up for the South African Open, and the organizers are positive that even more will follow suit in the coming months.
Read our Montecasino review.
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