SPRING will commence when the inaugural South African Spring Open international tennis tournament will take place in Johannesburg.
Tennis South Africa (TSA), in association with Vision View Productions (VVP), will host the tournament from September 23 to 29.
History will be made when the tournament will include both able-bodied ITF an able-bodied ITF World Tennis Tour ($15,000) event for men and women as well as a wheelchair tennis ITF Grade 2 tournament. This will bring together some 200 participants from across the world at Ellis Park tennis facility.
On the wheelchair tennis side well-known two-time grand slam champion Lucas Sithole and Wimbledon semi-finalist Kgothatso Montjane will be in action while top women’s player Chanel Simmonds from Kempton Park will spearhead the South African players.
Mafadi Mpuru, the managing director of Vision View Productions said, “We are thrilled to organise this tennis showpiece. As a company involved in sport, one of our objectives is to practically contribute to the development of sport in South Africa, especially where it is less developed and focusing on the less advantaged. Tennis is one area where we identified a gap and therefore decided to complement the efforts of TSA and work with them in bringing to our shores the SA Spring Open, as a beginning of this tennis development journey, but also as part of the of the need to continuously develop the sport so that our participation on the world stage is always guaranteed.”
Richard Glover, the CEO of Tennis South Africa, said, “Vision View have a bold long-term plan for the Spring Open and we look forward to seeing this combined tournament go from strength to strength. Indeed, the launch of the Spring Open is important for two reasons. Firstly it solidifies the planned integration of wheelchair tennis as a key department within TSA. Secondly it brings much-needed international competition to our shores. TSA is working hard to bring more international tennis to South Africa, and this is the first of several exciting announcements, in this space, in the coming months.”
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