Saad Al-Suwaidi
The 2019 GCC Tennis Championship concluded at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
The championship is organized by the Qatar Tennis Federation, in cooperation with the GCC Tennis Organizing committee, to help develop tennis in the region. The championship featured participations from Oman, Kuwait as well as Qatar the host country.
The Qatar under 12 team placed first in their category, edging past Kuwait who came second, and Oman which placed third.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s under 16 team included rising Qatar stars Rashed Nawaf, Nasser Yafei and Ghanim Al Khelaifi., placing first over Oman who came second, and Kuwait who came in third.
Ending the competition on a high, Qatar also outshone the competition In the Men’s category, positioning themselves in first place,followed by Kuwait in second and Oman in third.
Tariq Zainal is The Secretary General of Qatar Tennis Federation (QTF) since 2009, and Vice-President of the Arab Tennis Federation, praised Qatar’s national team on their success as well as the success of the tournament.
Zainal: “We are very proud as the Qatar Tennis Federation to host the tournament and I’d like to thank Kuwait and Oman for their participation, we are very proud of the results.”
Jabor Al-Mutawaa, who claimed the MVP for men’s, expressed his gratitude as well as spoke about his experience throughout the competition: “This is one of the most important tournaments for us to be honest, it’s been one of the most important tournaments for the past 30, 40 years for as long as tennis existed in this region. We travel a lot, we play a lot of international tournaments, and we compete against worldwide athletes, but always winning the GCC Championship it always has a special feel to it. Once against I am very humbled by this experience.
With participations increasing within the GCC, the hope of developing the interest in the sport is none the less growing.