Argentina improves facilities in order to give juniors more chances
For the last couple of years, South America has failed to produce youngsters who would challenge for the place in the top-100 on the ATP ranking list, struggling to send them to Europe during spring and summer or to organize the adequate number of Futures that would keep them busy during the season. Players from Argentina and Brazil had notable junior results, with Axel Geller securing the year-end number 1 position in 2017 and Thiago Seyboth Wild who conquered the US Open this September but they have failed to make an impression on the NextGen ranking list, with only eight South Americans in the top-100 and none in the top-40!
The Argentinians have won 11 Challenger titles in 2018 and there are six players from this country ranked inside the top-20, led by Juan Martin del Potro and Diego Schwartzman who both had a great season. Overall, there are 21 Argentinians in the top-400 on the latest ATP ranking list but the problem is only two of those are younger than 23, both placed outside the top-350. In addition, Argentina hosted only nine Futures tournaments in 2018 (for example, Turkey had some 35, hosting them in Antalya almost throughout the year) and that was the first thing they wanted to change before the start of 2019, with the Argentinian Tennis Federation making an agreement with the El Pinamar Tennis Ranch south of Buenos Aires to host 21 ITF World Tennis Tour M15 events!
These tournaments will replace Futures in the new men's tennis structure and they will be held in three stints with seven tournaments in each, starting from March 18 and going on until December. ATF executive director Martin Vassallo Arguello and circuit directors Pablo Chaiman and Juan Riquelme were all presented at the launching event and they were all very pleased with the facility that offers the best possible conditions for players to train and play their matches. Under the new structure, players will fight for the ITF points that will allow them to enter the higher M25 events and also Challengers, which is always the main goal for the lower-ranked players.
Vassallo Arguello stated this is the best possible approach in order to keep the home players active throughout the year and to reduce their traveling and additional costs it brings. In addition, the U16 and U18 players will have a chance to fight for the main draw wild cards, together with the other prominent juniors who will compete in tournaments to determine the winners of the next week's tournament wild card, which promises a lot of action outside the main event as well. Besides 10 clay courts, the complex also contains courts for beach soccer, beach volleyball, pools, sauna, massage rooms and the gym, pretty much everything to keep players fit in back-to-back weeks.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2zS6KZy
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