KUALA LUMPUR, 28 Jan 2018:
The Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) wants the party taking over the management of the National Tennis Complex in Jalan Duta to maintain the facilities in the complex.
LTAM president Mirzan Mahathir said the association agreed with the decision of the Malaysia Stadium Corporation (MSC) to privatise the complex – but wanted the asset to be managed well in the interest of tennis.
“Now, three companies are interested to take over…We agree with MSC’s decision but hope our request is met. We held a meeting with MSC and told them what we felt was important, now it is up to them selected the party to manage the complex.
“This is a national asset, so whoever takes over must take care of all equipment, courts and buildings so that we can hold our training programmes and competitions here,” he told reporters after launching phase two of ‘First Serve’ programme at the complex here yesterday.
He also hoped the rental rate for LTAM would also be maintained to enable the association to carry out various activities even after it had been privatised.
MSC chief executive officer Azman Fahmi Osman had earlier said LTAM would be given priority to use the complex and the decision to privatise it is to develop the sport.
Meanwhile, LTAM hoped more youngsters would follow the footsteps of Christian Didier Chin – who created history by advancing into the second round of the Australian Open Junior Championship last Sunday.
LTAM president Mirzan Mahathir admitted that Christian had left a high benchmark for other players in the country and challenged them to catch up with 17-year-old who is now ranked 45th in the International Tennis Federation junior rankings.
“He has attained a level, beyond the reach of other players. We hope he would continue to collect ranking points to move higher.”
– Bernama