John Morrissey achieves a place in Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games Tennis Event

ITF announces acceptance lists forSingapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games Tennis Event

The ITF today announced the acceptance lists for the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games

Tennis Event. Thirty-nine countries are represented in the boys’ and girls’ events that both

comprise 32 players in singles and 16 pairs in doubles. The Youth Olympic Games Tennis Event,

for players aged 18-and-under, will take place on 15-21 August at the Kallang Tennis Centre.

The inaugural Youth Olympic Games, held on 14-26 August, will welcome around 5,000 athletes

and officials from the 205 National Olympic Committees to Singapore. Young athletes – aged

between 14 and 18 years – will complete in 26 sports.

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, the junior world No. 1 and Roland Garros champion, leads the girls’

entries, and is joined by Roland Garros runner-up Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, and world No. 3 Monica

Puig of Puerto Rico. Two former junior No. 1-ranked players, India’s Yuki Bhambri and Brazil’s

Tiago Fernandes, head the boys’ draw. Singapore’s Stefanie Tan has received a host nation

place into the girls’ event.

A maximum of two boys and two girls per country are eligible to complete in the singles and

doubles events. Players must also have made themselves available for selection to represent

their country in any of the ITF junior team competitions in either 2009 or 2010.

Singles acceptances were based firstly on a player’s junior world ranking (12 places), then on

ranking by region (16 places). The remaining four positions were allocated either by the IOC or

the next highest ranked player. The Youth Olympic Games Tennis Event is a Grade A event on

the 2010 ITF Junior Circuit, offering bonus ranking points for the singles and doubles winners.

Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, who won six singles titles and 38 doubles titles in an outstanding career,

will represent tennis on site as an Athlete Role Model. The Athlete Role Models programme will

be implemented by the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOCOG) as

part of the Culture and Education Programme.

ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said: “With nearly 40 countries from seven regions, it is

exciting to see tennis so well represented at the first Summer Youth Olympic Games.

Performance and universality are two of the cornerstones of the Youth Olympics, and I am

confident that the quality of entry and range of participants will contribute to a successful tennis

event in Singapore.”

The draws for the Youth Olympic Games Tennis Event will take place at 16:00 local time on 13

August at the Kallang Tennis Centre.

Attached are the acceptances for the boys’ and girls’ singles events. The doubles events will

comprise players already involved in singles.