Tennis: Coac (FRT) - We need many tournaments as the one in Curtea de Arges

The interim president of the Romanian Tennis Federation (FRT), George Cosac, told a press conference on Thursday that Romania needs as many ITF tournaments as possible, such as the Vitality Open Tour that is taking place these days in Curtea de Arges.

"Such tournaments are extremely important for Romanian players. This is because a tennis player needs to participate in at least 20-25 tournaments so as to have an optimal ranking. And the expenses for participating in tournaments abroad are enormous. That is why these home tournaments are very important. We need as many such tournaments in Romania as possible. 39 Romanian players were present at this tournament. It is an extraordinary thing for them because they can accumulate ATP points and have the chance to rise in the rankings," Cosac said.

Present at the press conference, Alina Tecsor, the coach of the Romanian team in the Billie Jean King Cup, hopes that in the final phases of the tournament in Curtea de Arges there will be as many Romanian players as possible.

"It is in the interest of the Romanian tennis to organize as many tournaments as the one in Curtea de Arges. The participation of Romanians is very high and this will matter in the future. We want to organize as many tournaments of this level as possible so that Romanian young players are able to play at home, at a lower cost. Now we can only hope that as many Romanians as possible will reach the final stages," explained Tecsor.

Ioan Cozma, the representative of the official sponsor of the tournament, stated in his turn that he would like to financially support an ATP or WTA tournament, but it cannot be organized in Romania in the absence of a base with at least 8 fields. "The tournament in Curtea de Arges is an extremely strong one because we have 21 foreign players from 13 countries among the main players. We are glad that today we have on the main board Romanian players who participated in our junior tournaments a few years ago. In order to organize an ATP or WTA tournament, we lack the infrastructure, such a big tournament requires 8 or 12 courts, and its organization at Curtea de Arges is not possible. Maybe here in Bucharest, if the Romanian Tennis Federation succeeds in finding a suitable base, but at Curtea de Arges with five courts we are not up to it," mentioned the general director of Dr. Oetker Romania.

The men's Vitality Open Tour, now at its eighth edition, is taking place these days in Curtea de Arges. The competition, in the ITF World Tennis Tour competition calendar, features prizes worth 15,000 US dollars.