ABA Bank ITF Junior Series returns in 2020
04/Mar/2020
After last year's successful International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Series 2019 tournament, ABA Bank is thrilled to announce that it continues to be the Title Sponsor of the Series for 2020. Aptly titled "ABA Bank ITF Junior Series 2020", this year's tournament sees the continuation of the Bank's commitment to the development of tennis as a sport that fosters a healthy competitive spirit, instilling young players with humility, respect, and confidence.
The tournament aims at junior tennis players at the age of 13 – 18 years on their path to becoming professional players. The year-round tournament is going be held at Cambodian Country Club (CCC) and divided into four competitive weeks. The first two weeks were completed on 29 February 2020, while the last two will take place in November-December 2020.
The winners of the first two weeks are as follows: in the girl's singles category, Fangran Tian of China is the champion for Week one, and Rion Obata of Japan is the champion for Week two. For the boy's singles, James Van Herseele of Belgium emerged as the champion for Week one, whereas Eita Ishikawa of Japan won the category for Week two.
In the girl's doubles, Week one's championship went to Yatawee ChimCham and Pawinee Ruamnak of Thailand, while Week two's title belonged to Yuina Igarashi of Japan and Dainhee Kim of South Korea. In the boy's doubles category, Asahi Harazaki and Satoru Nakajima of Japan emerged as the champion for both weeks!
"We are elated that ABA Bank ITF Junior Series 2020 tournament got to a successful start, and each year it gathers more and more participants. It is the fifth year ABA supports the Cambodian tennis federation and the second year as Title Sponsor of ITF Series. We hope this tournament will nurture further sportsmanship in Cambodia and allow our youths to compete with the best peers in the region," commented Igor Zimarev, ABA's Chief Marketing Officer.
TEP Rithivit, Secretary-General of Tennis Cambodia said: "We are thrilled to host another year of ITF Juniors, players from all over the world showed up for our 4th edition. Our juniors have responded well, and some have clearly shown that their level is good enough to be contenders. We are pleased to see our first local junior, Apsara Chhieu, to become the first Cambodian female junior to earn ITF points. A tremendous achievement of which we are very proud."
During the two weeks, there were 200 participants from 21 different countries – Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Belgium, France, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Russia, Hong Kong, and others.
In line with its Corporate Values, ABA Bank has provided support to sports activities as a whole and Tennis Cambodia in particular on several tournaments such as ITF Futures, ITF Juniors, ITF Team Competitions, Asian Tennis Federation Administrative Workshops since 2016. Since then, the organization has steadily increased its commitment to the development of this elegant game.
