The 2024 Barbados Road Tennis Open will serve off its third iteration on July 28 at Belfield with over $100 000 in prize money up for grabs.
Reigning Men’s and Women’s champions Mark “Venom” Griffith and Sheldene Walrond were up front and centre at the competition’s official media launch at the Ministry of Youth, Sport & Community Empowerment’s headquarters at Haggatt Hall, St Michael as the new main sponsor for the event, Bajan Pure Purified Water was announced.
Also in attendance were Minister of Youth Sport and Community Empowerment Charles Griffith, Director of Sports at the National Sports Council Neil Murrell, Group Head of Advertising at Nation Publishing Paulette Jones, owner of NPure Water Filtration Inc. Neil Corbin, Nathan Agard of Riveting Inc. and Chairman of the Barbados Road Tennis Open Shawn Burke.
For the second successive year, Nation Publishing will be a platinum sponsor for the prestigious event and Jones drew interesting parallels between Nation Publishing and the sport of road tennis.
“We believe that our paths are similar as we both continue to impact the world with that which is uniquely Barbadian. The Nation’s ability to tell the story of Barbados and Barbadians like only we can, and road tennis showcasing the resilience, flair and creativity that is Barbadian. Fifty plus years ago when the Nation was founded, sports and sports coverage was a major part of our ethos, and it remains that way today. We continue to invest heavily in sports and its coverage with well-trained and competent journalists, photographers and photo-journalists,” said Jones.
This year offered a few firsts for the tournament including a new website www.roadtennisopen.com, the option for online registration, new line replay technology, and the new road tennis scoring software COURTSIDE which will allow for a dedicated road tennis player directory and ranking of matches played.
The locations for this year’s tournament will begin at Belfield and Bush Hall in St. Michael, followed by Gall Hill in St. John and Diamond Corner in St. Peter running from July 28th to August 10th. From August 11th to September 15th, weekly schedules will be released with locations throughout communities nationwide. The semi-finals and finals will be contested at the Wildey Gymnasium between September 19th and 22nd.
