Venue For The 2009 Wta Tennis Tournament Announced

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SOURCE: Pattaya Daily News: September 6th 2008

VENUE FOR 2009 WTA TENNIS TOURNAMENT ANNOUNCED

Pentangle Promotions Co., Ltd, the license holder for Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournaments in Thailand has announced that Dusit Thani Pattaya will be the venue for the upgraded WTA tournament which will be held from 7 – 15 February 2009.

The new tournament, which is part of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s newly created “international series” will be called the “PTT Pattaya Open” as it is an amalgamation of the 2 existing tournaments held in Thailand, the PTT Bangkok Open and the Pattaya Women’s Open. As part of the “international series,” the Pattaya tournament carries prize money of a minimum of US$220,000.

To meet the new criteria for hosting Sony Ericsson WTA tour “international series” events, a number of improvements have had to be made to the venue to bring it up to standard. These include the construction of a fourth court on-site, increasing the grandstand seating capacity to 2,500 seats, improving the lighting on all courts and the expanding the administration offices, press centre and the player facilities. The work on improving the venue will be completed by December.

Mr. Sarun Rungkasiri, Senior Vice President, Corporate Public Relations Department at PTT Public Company Limited said “it makes sense to amalgamate the two tournaments to create one bigger event, which will enable tennis fans in Thailand to see some of the world’s top tennis players in action. At the same time, we can continue our commitment to provide opportunities for our local Thai players to compete at the highest level of women’s professional tennis”

Mr. Itthiphol Kunplome, Mayor of Pattaya City said “I am delighted that Pattaya continues to be the home of WTA tennis in Thailand. We have hosted women’s professional tennis in Pattaya for almost 20 years. The huge media exposure generated by the tournament plays an important role in creating a positive image around the world of Pattaya as an international sporting venue. With the upgrading of the tournament we can expect even greater media exposure from next year.”

For more information on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event in Pattaya contact Pentangle Promotions Co., Ltd: Tel 02-3823491-3 Fax: 02-3823490, website; www.pentanglepromotions.com