Unified Tennis Philippines to hold 104 tournaments this year

Gaining momentum from a successful campaign last year, the Unified Tennis Philippines announced its plan to stage 70 Junior, 14 Senior, 7 Professional Open, 1 Trainers Open and 12 UTP Tennis Challenge Series for a total of 104 tennis tournaments this season as part of its mission to produce world-class Filipino players and popularize the sport at all levels.

“Getting these Filipino athletes out there to compete with other world-class tennis players has been our lifelong dream. I’m glad that we have gained traction since we rolled out UTP’s programs two years ago. And so we will continue to fulfill our mission to discover fresh talents and improve the quality of our tennis players from the professional level down to the grassroots’ level by providing them with proper training and international exposure,” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, president and founder of UTP.

The UTP is backed by Cebuana Lhuillier, Palawan Pawnshop, Babolat, HEAD, Chris’ Sports, Dunlop, Toby’s Sports, Wilson, Decathlon, Mr. Freeze, and Madison Galleries.

Recently, the Cebuana Lhuillier Age Group Tennis and Palawan Pawnshop Age Group Tennis held their kick-off tournaments at the Meralco Tennis Club in Pasig and at the Actifit Sports Center in Valenzuela, respectively. Both tournaments attracted more than 250 local junior, professional, and senior players, spearheaded by current top players John David Velez, Sebastien Lhuillier, Joewyn Pascua, Macie Carlos, Bliss Bayking, and Anna De Myer.

UTP will soon announce the cut-off period for selection of the 2019 UTP National Juniors Tennis through social media.

Last year, UTP formed several teams that played in Malaysia and Indonesia and were successful in producing winners in the Asian Tennis Federation and International Tennis Federation tournaments, with the Eala siblings Alex and Miko reaching the finals.

New initiatives and programs are also underway, including the introduction of an online tournament registration in the second quarter of the year and the staging of more level-based tournaments for club players such as the UTP Tennis Challenge series.

Just like in the past two years, the organization backed by Cebuana Lhuillier plans to send its players to this year’s WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Future Stars event in China which aims to showcase top young talents from the Asia-Pacific region.

Dunlop, the official ball partner of the 2019 Australian Open, will also provide the official ball of all Palawan Pawnshop and Cebuana Lhuillier tournaments.