Youngsters Play Mini-Tennis with Tennis Emirates and Sony Ericsson

Dubai, UAE, March 1st, 2007: Youngsters under the age of 12 who come to the Dubai Tennis Championships have their very own tournament taking place in the Tennis Village. Each evening from 4-7pm, children have the opportunity to sign up and participate in a Mini-Tennis competition under the supervision of Tennis Emirates coaches with prizes from Sony Ericsson on the line for the winners. The Mini-Tennis program is run under the patronage of Saeed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Mini-Tennis is a development program aimed at identifying raw tennis talent in children under age 12. Normally, run in schools, Mini-Tennis is the starting point to develop racket skills and the hand-eye coordination vital in a tennis players.

On Thursday night 50 players vied for the title. Yousef Ibrahim, 12, from the National Team of Bahrain came to play because he was keen to see how the Emiratis play. Yousef advanced to the quarter-finals with a 8-6 win over Vaibhav Mohan, 12, a ball kid at the Championships.

Hanna Shehata, 10 years, also made the quarter-finals. She has been a ball kid at the tournament and has watched Federer play each of his matches. On Thursday night, as the world number 1 played on Centre Court, Hanna played on the Mini-Tennis court. She said she needed to play because she hasn't practised for two weeks while at the championships.

Coach Sonia Azzouz, from Tennis Emirates said: "Each day the kids are playing better. Mini-tennis doesn't need power! Even very strong players played but they lost. Mini tennis needs touch, spin and finesse."

On Saturday afternoon, all of the daily winners will play a Masters Tournament, with the four semi-finalists winning mobile phones from Sony Ericsson.

For further information: John Rynehart, Promoseven Sports Marketing,
(T) +9714 3210008; (M) +971 50 55 96795; john.rynehart@promoseven.com