Pelti to expand mini tennis activities

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) will expand its mini tennis activities to include children and their parents who do not have a full knowledge of tennis.

Pelti official in charge of tennis development, promotion and foreign affairs Martina Widjaja said on Thursday that mini tennis would be introduced to children in kindergarten and the first year of elementary school to help them decide if they want to choose tennis as a career.

"Mini tennis is obligatory if we want to popularize tennis in this country. Any child can come out to play mini tennis. We will see if they have talent to be a tennis player through the practice," she told a media briefing on Thursday.

She said Pelti would initiate the mini tennis pilot project in Central Java in July, in East Java in August and in West Java in September.

Dani, who is in charge of mini tennis development, said the sport was included in the curriculum of 12 state schools here. He said the sport would be introduced in four cities in Central Java -- Ambarawa and Semarang, Tegal, Surakarta and Yogyakarta.

"We are targeting students in kindergarten and the first year of school whose ages are between four and five. We will make mini tennis a fun game to play individually or in teams. When they reach five or six, we hope that they have understood how to hit a ball, and when they're a year older, they can start playing tennis," he said.

Mini tennis will also be exhibited in public areas like shopping malls, said Ary Sudarsono, who is in charge of mini tennis promotion.

"It's difficult to introduce tennis to the general public, because they have developed an assumption that tennis is an expensive sport. Besides, tennis is not as lively as other team sports like basketball or soccer," he said.

"But I'm optimistic that this sport will not only be played as a hobby. Tennis can be a communicative means to improve a youths' nature," he added.

Martina also said Pelti would expand the extra tournament every Saturday and Sunday for juniors, seniors and veterans across the provinces who have adequate facilities.

She said the tournament, which is called Pertandingan Tennis Sabtu Minggu (Saturday/ Sunday tournament) or Persami, is aimed at increasing the number of tournaments which are affordable for everyone.

Persami, which has been staged since 1996 at Danamon Tennis Center in Central Jakarta, will be held in less than two days and will be without referees and ball boys.(ivy)