The General Authority of Youth and Sports Welfare, publicly known as “The Ministry”, announced earlier this week the formation of the new Tennis Emirates Board of Directors that will lead Tennis in the country until the next Olympic games in 2016.

Chaired by H.E. Sh. Hasher Al Maktoum, the new board had a mixture of experience and youth. Abdul Rahman Falaknaz and Salah Tahlak kept their positions on board while Ahmed Abdul-Malik Ahly, Khalid Aal Ali, Sarah Ahmed Baker and Amina Abdul-Rehman Taher made their first appearance.

H.E. Sh. Hasher Al Maktoum, chaired the new board 1^st meeting by welcoming his colleagues and wished them a successful internship. He also appraised the great effort and sincere work performed by the previous board members and in particular the extra ordinary and un-matchable contribution of Nasser Madani whom had served tennis in the country voluntarily for almost 30 years and had to step down due to his personal commitments.

Please welcome our new Board of Directors:-

Mr. Abdul Rahman Falakanz, Senior Vice-President

Mr. Ahmed Abdul Mailk, Vice President

Mr. Salah Tahlak, Financial Controller

Mr. Khalid Aal Ali, General Secretary / Head of National Team Committee

Ms. Sarah Ahmed Baker, Women’s Tennis Development Committee

Ms. Amina Abdul Rahman Taher,   Development & Marketing Committee

“MABROUK” Tennis Emirates kids and very well done for such hard work during the past 9 months!

A very special WELL DONE to Jorge Martin Munoz - UAE National Team coach -  for a great effort and an outstandingly successful program.

Jorge had started last September working daily with children from various schools (but mainly Al Ittihad school in Jumairah and Dubai International School in Al Barsha).  His program was open to any child who preferred to play tennis during the PE lesson rather than any other sport.

As a result, over 300 children registered with him and of those, 200 had the chance to hit with the pros during the TE / Head Clinic at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Chapionships. During the 2^nd half of the academic year, a smaller group was asked to train with Jorge after school hours.

This elite team will now start phase 2 of this year's program which will take them through the summer vacation in a more focused training.

Asking Jorge about his feeling about this achievement, he answered “I feel great and ambitious!  I am happy to produce a base for UAE National team.  I am also confident that with 1 school we got 18 players, imagine what we can do if we got  10 or 11 schools around the country!” (he winked)

For people interested in learning more about the program, please contact Jorge Martin  Munoz on 056 – 747 9237

Tennis Emirates was delighted to receive Vickie Fecci from the ITF who came to Dubai for a preliminary evaluation visit for the 2014 ITF AGM. Vickie is working with the ITF in the capacity of AGM Organiser / Membership Department and has been responsible for all the ITF AGMs and Board of Directors meetings around the world for many years.

Earlier this year, the ITF had awarded Tennis Emirates the honour of hosting its 2014 Annual General Meeting during the period of 23 – 26 September 2014.

Nasser Madani, Tennis Emirates board of director and chairman of the specially formed organizing committee, stated: “The most important thing that we start working on was to short list the hotel and the convention center that has the ability to host the 600+ representatives from 220 members countries plus other ITF staff, committee members and international media.” He added “after checking most of Dubai hotels, we had short listed 3 hotels to host the guests as well as the meetings, also had short listed 6 different places that are capable to cater for such a big number of guests during the welcome dinner, gala party and other social events throughout the AGM”

On her debrief meeting, Vickie concluded the visit in 1 short sentence that said it all “ usually when I visit a city to check the proposed venue, I am shown a place or maximum 2 to check and usually the decision is very obvious, here it’s very confusing as I have to choose the best out of the super, and I have all the reason to believe that our 2014 AGM is in safe hands”.

It was certainly our pleasure at Tennis Emirates  to welcome Vickie to Dubai last week.  We will be looking forward for her next visit in the last week of September (same period as AGM next year).  During this visit we hope to acclimatise the committee to the local weather conditions before deciding on outdoor or indoor dinners.

If you are seeking some tennis thrill this May, come and join the Ladies Tennis Discovery Day at the Sharjah Ladies Club and discover yourself to exciting competitions.

Enjoy a host of fun activities, a chance to improve your tennis skills and win victory medals.

Saturday May 25^th from 4.30 to 8.00 pm

Entry Fees:- Dhs. 50

For more information, call:- o6 – 506 7740