Published On:Tuesday, December 01, 2009

ORGANISERS of the ninth annual Mark Knowles Celebrity Tennis Invitational have added an additional interactive experience for junior tennis players during the weekend of fun-filled activities.

And two of many tennis stars - German Anna-Lena Groenefeld and American Jared Palmer (former No.1 doubles player and Wimbledon doubles champion) - slated to take part are scheduled to arrive in the Bahamas today. The event starts Friday with a Pro-Am at Atlantis and exhibition at the National Tennis Center at 3pm Saturday.

Groenefeld partnered with Knowles to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles championship title this year. The duo will face off with Martin Damm & Olga Savchuk as part of the exhibition.

The Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association (BLTA) and the organisers have selected several of the Bahamas' promising young juniors to hit a few tennis balls with the professional players during a "hit with the pros" session immediately following Saturday's exhibition at National Tennis Centre.

The BLTA has announced that juniors Phillip Major of Andros, Julio Valdz of Grand Bahama and Dylan Walker of Eleuthera will be coming to New Providence to watch the exhibition and play with the pros.

BLTA president Stephen Turnquest said they wanted to include some representation from islands other than New Providence because so often they get neglected due to travel expenses and other issues.

Said Walker, a 12-year-old student of Central Eleuthera High School who has been playing tennis since he was five years old.

"Thank you for the invitation to participate in the Mark Knowles Kids Tennis Day Camp. I am very excited to have been given the opportunity to attend," said Walker.

"I feel that this is an opportunity for me to improve my performance in tennis and sharpen my skills. I am excited to meet Mark Knowles and his exciting group of world class pros. It means a lot to me to be given the opportunity to come to Nassau.

"On the island of Eleuthera I receive very limited play here as there is no one to hit with except for my mom and recently with Mr Wesley Rolle. I rarely get the opportunity to play in a lot of tournaments because of the expense. I feel this camp will motivate me to achieve one of my goals of playing tennis professionally."

Thirteen-year-old Philip Major had this to say: "I am really excited to attend this year's camp. It will help me to improve and get better in footwork and technique to better my game. I am very grateful that I was chosen," said Major, who attends North Andros High School.

"I get to see Mark and these pros up close and maybe get a tip or two to improve my own serve and forearm. I will be motivated to play better tennis."

Julio Valdz, a 13-year-old student of St George's High School, has been playing tennis for nine years.

"It will be a great experience seeing tennis pros play and it will give me incentive to do better," he said. "Mark Knowles is like the best doubles player in the world and it's like a dream come true for me to be face-to-face with ATP top single and doubles players."

In Nassau, the selection process is underway with the most promising juniors from various tennis professionals, such as Kim O'Kelley and Robbie Isaacs.

The "Hit with the Pros" session is scheduled to start at 4:30pm for about 30 minutes and will give the juniors a taste of sharing the tennis court with these legends of the game.

Knowles said that he thinks it is extremely important to encourage junior players and to let them see close up the techniques that are common to all the best players in the world.

He said that he was fortunate as a young child to be able to see Bjorn Borg, Vitas Geruliatis, Fred Stolle and Rod Laver and many others when they played in tournaments held at the Nassau Beach Hotel. Knowles said that this certainly inspired him to try and emulate them.

Tickets are now on sale at the National Tennis Centre, the Atlantis Tennis Centre, the Village Squash Club, the Lyford Cay School and H G Christie.

The proceeds of the event will go to aid local children's charities such as the Cancer Society, the Sassoon (Bahamas) Foundation for Pediatric Heart Care, Special Olympics, the Association for the Physically Disabled, the Chance Foundation and the Mark Knowles Tennis Scholarship Fund.

To date, over $400,000 has been distributed to various charities. The aim this year is to increase total donations to $500,000.

The major sponsors to date include Atlantis Resort & Casino, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch Private Bank & Trust, Pictet Bank & Trust Ltd, Serenity Point, Abaco, The Balmoral, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, American Airlines, the Bank of the Bahamas, Everkey Global Fund, Templeton Global Advisors, Odyssey Aviation, H3O, TheBahamasWeekly.com and the Ministry of Youth Sports & Culture.

The Mark Knowles Celebrity Tennis Invitational is a charity event that has been hosted by Knowles since 2001. The event is held in December at the National Tennis Centre in Nassau (New Providence), Bahamas. For further details, visit:

www.markknowles

tennis.com