/ Town Hall
Monday 21st January 2019
PALMANOVA HOLDS, ONE MORE YEAR, THE ITF TOURNAMENTS
The Calvià Town Hall and the Hoteliers Association of Palmanova-Magaluf support this sporting event that helps extend the season
The presentation of the ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments, that will take place at the Vilas Academy facilities in Palmanova (Calvià) during the next three weeks, took place on Monday, coinciding with the start of the qualifying charts.
The Hotel Ponent Mar in Son Caliu, official lodging for the participating tennis players, held the starting signal in which Eva Serra, deputy mayor of sports of Calvià Town Hall, Joan Espina, vice president of the Hoteliers Association of Palmanova-Magaluf, Christian Babuin, representing the Vilas Academy, as well as Toni Ferragut, president of the Balearic Islands Tennis Federation, took part.
Serra has expressed the support provided by the Calvià Town Hall to "promote sporting events that also provide a satisfactory experience for participants beyond their competition". The deputy mayor added that the strategic goal of the Institut Calvianer de l'Esport is "to offer a space for international athletes that provides an economic return to deseasonalise the tourist season".
On his behalf, Espina has pointed in the same direction recognising how difficult is to "extend the tourist season" noting the importance of these sporting events "as an option that allows hoteliers to keep their establishments open, maintain jobs and provide economic benefits to all the municipality "so, he added," we must support it, because sports tourism is what we live off in winter''.
The Hotel Ponent Mar, through the agreement with the organisation of the tournament, offers all facilities to tennis players, technicians and companions, to combine competition with maximum comfort.
Babuin wanted to thank the Vilas Academy for the support provided by the Calvià Town Hall and the Hoteliers Association of Palmanova-Magaluf to be able to lodge in its facilities the two male and one female charts that will start on 21st January until 10th February "It is a great opportunity for local players and it is also an attraction for the island amateur to be able to see the future professional tennis player in action at home", concluded the representative of the academy named after the tennis player Guillermo Vilas.
Finally, Ferragut also thanked the "indispensable predisposition" of all parties involved to be able to have in Calvià "some tournaments that have been consolidating for years but now become more important with the new ITF calendar model that restricts the circuit". The president of the FTIB has indicated as essential to "get wild cards" -invitations- so that island players can win their first international points" without having to assume the high costs of having to travel to the mainland or abroad."
Isabel Adrover, Gemma Lairón, Yvonne Cavallé, Joan Bautista Borrás and Sergio Martos, also attended the event. There are five representatives of the Balearic tennis that will participate, during the next three weeks, in Palmanova. Everyone appreciated the "logistical effort" as well as the opportunity to "start the year competing at home to add the first points" of a season with "many changes in regulation as well as in the scoring system". Rosa Vicens, Gerard Escandell, Imanol López and Pedro Vives complete the list of island players.
