Supersports Junior Tennis Championship
Four players, Raihah, Reefa, Fayyadh and Irsyad with one coach took flight from Hatyai to Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok. It was domestic flight and that was cheaper compared to International flight. Since our place was just 1 hour away from Hatyai, that was the best option for us to take.
It has been a journey that we have been eyeing for sometimes since we have not visited this covered courts in Bangkok. We have been to few places in Bangkok but not this one. We have been to Alpine Tennis Club and Pyramid Tennis Academy and we tried Beat Discovery this time to see the surroundings and environments apart from having to test the players ability.
In Malaysia, we have tournaments but we do not have the numbers. And players are almost the same one and we knew almost everyone. We need someone who we never met to test our training. Whats the point of training when we cant test them. As for that, July is the month to test, train and test and train again. We need to get that match numbers for the players for them to gain at least minimum required match numbers per year.
Usually, tournaments in Thailand are just for two days. It is just a perfect outing for the players since they do not have to skip many days of school. If we are going by car, we usually skip Friday school and came back on Sunday with usual Monday morning to school. For Raihah and Reefa, we usually skip Sunday as they were schooling in Kedah with Friday and Saturday as weekends.
Somehow, this tournament was a little different. It was dragged to 3 days, Saturday to Monday. I believe it was because they combined two tournaments with the Red Orange Green (ROG) groups.
Registration
We planned ahead to come here. Registered in LTAT website for two categories for Raihah and Reefa. They are turning 11 this August and will play in Girls 12 Under and Girls 14 Under.
The fees for each single categories were 1,000 baht and can be made at the venue. In 2023 when we were starting the tour in Thailand, most of the venues will accept cash as payment, but today QR code and credit card is available to use.
At the event on the first day, we registered the doubles as well. In Thailand, there are not many tournaments with doubles. They were mostly single and doubles were not their main event. And the fees for doubles were 1,200 baht per pair. It was perfect as they were already coming in paired and the played on their own categories.
The Tennis Courts
Wondering why Thailand able to build this kind of facilities and Malaysia does not have such facilities as this. Phuket was great with few private clubs and Bangkok have more of these. This is a place where Danai Academy is situated. Danai Udomchoke is the former ATP player with highest rank 77 in the world. With his own place to coach, I knew that he can make this business very well in Bangkok.
There were also 3 pickle ball courts, two red courts and one orange court. It is a huge place with badminton as well. Did not went to badminton side, but I believe if the courts are fully occupied with coaching, thats a lot of cash flowing in.
The Draw
The draw will be published in the website on Thursday. That is a great example to follow and this gives players great time to prepare their journey to the tournament. For local, they know their playibg time and can plan accordingly.
Though the payment made was just at the venue, the not turning up rate are not high since they will deduct the players points. They need to show up and withdrawal need to be done before closing dates.
2-3 days tournament
Juniors, they are bind with other stuff auch as schools. It is quite convenience to have tournaments on weekends. The tournaments usually held on Saturday as the first day of the tournaments. This will give make the players not to skip so many days on school as that is also what parents want their children to have good grades and good tennis as well.
There are few tournaments that extend the tournament duration to Monday, but that is for later stage. If players win, they are willing to skip school for one day. Unlike other countries, Malaysia starts tournament of Wednesday, and end it on Sunday. Players have to skip school for 3 days and if the tournament is far from their hometown, they have to skip for 4 days.
One reason many refuse to join tournaments are because of the schedule of days being done.
Umpires
They have umpires on every matches. Thats the beauty of the tournaments in Thailand. Though the quality of the umpires was not 5 stars, but at least they have it. That will improve when the umpires have more match numbers in them. The umpires were mostly from Yala if we go to the Southern part of the tournaments. But in Beat Discovery, they have different team. But we met the familiar refferees through the tournaments we went.
When you have the umpire, issues on the players cheating cam be solved right away. Its one headache that they already cater for players. It is good to have it though it has pros and contra, I believe it benefit more than not having chair umpires.
Format
With the 2-3 days tournaments, they have to make it short. And it was 2 short set with final set supertiebreak. Players need to be prepared to play short set with no advantage format. It almost impossible to have a very long matches up to 3 hours since it capped the deuce to sudden death.
By doing so, players experience more tiebreaks. Especially the supertiebreak where this will teach them a lot of good things. To be brave, to focus more and to know how to play the tiebreaks.
The kids learn a lot in sipertiebreak. Making one or two errors in supertiebreaks will make them suffer on overall score. But by not being aggressive in tiebreak, they will lose the chance to get points.
Prize Giving Ceremony
They do have the ceremony, but they stick to what have already finish and let others play and receive the medals or trophies without the ceremony. If the categories who have not finish, they just need to accept being given the medals without ceremony. It is quite convenience to have the prize given anytime they finish matches. In NTTA monthly medals, we are doing this kind of prize giving, where they can take the medals anytime they want.
Players, Parents and Coaches who has things to do afterwards, do not have to wait for the prize giving ceremony. People said, time is money and it should be treated in such ways. Waiting another dat for prize giving has no weight on it in my opponion. There wes no waiting vor VIPs or listening to long speech in Prize Giving.
Reefa had won her 12 under girls single and Raihah/ Reefa won the doubles 12 under girls. They finish their matches after the ceremony, and we took the trophies after the ceremony and catch the flight afterwards. We have no issue with that as it has become a culture to do that.
There are a lot to learn and to do to improve the tournaments if we really look deeply and learn from others. I believe, going to outside Malaysia tournaments will open the eyes of players and coaches for extra experience and different style of play from other tournaments. We have not yet experience the Europe tennis tournaments, but we are keen to get there one day to learn and experience.