Steffi Graf kicks off 7th LONGINES Tennis tourney
In the very heart of Paris, in the Eiffel Tower, a ceremony was held today for the opening-round draw for the Longines Future Tennis Aces tournament, which this year brings together 16 young ladies under 13 years of age from 16 different countries for a competition worthy of the world’s best professional tennis players. The evening was graced by the presence of two Roland-Garros legends: Stefanie Graf, Longines Ambassador of Elegance, and Arantxa Sanchez, patron of the 2016 edition, who won the Parisian clay court tournament six and three times respectively during the course of their illustrious careers. The ceremony also gave Stefanie Graf an opportunity to present the Conquest Roland Garros, a watch that she helped to develop.
Graf and Sanchez were on hand for the ceremony for the opening-round draw for the Longines Future Tennis Aces tournament, which the watchmaker has been organising since 2010. This year, the event brings together 16 young ladies under 13 years of age from 16 different countries – Australia, China, South Korea, Spain, United States, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Singapore and Taiwan – who will compete on an open-air court built on the Parvis de la Défense.
After the final match of the three-day tournament, which takes place from May 26 to 28, the event will wrap up with an exhibition match featuring the two finalists, Arantxa Sanchez and Kim Clijsters. The winner of the Longines Future Tennis Aces tournament will be awarded a Longines watch, a trophy and an annual bursary until her 16th birthday, to help pay for her sporting equipment.
India’s Sarah Dev is among the several contestants participating in the tournament. Ranked India no. 1 player in singles in U-12 category for two consecutive years (2014 and 2015), this year she got the opportunity to participate in ‘Road to Wimbledon’ Masters. In the tournaments, she was the winner in singles and doubles category of ‘Road to Wimbledon’ National Series held in Hyderabad. She was singles winner in ‘Road to Wimbledon’ National Series held in Mumbai. She was Doubles runners-up in ‘Road to Wimbledon’ National Series held in Indore. She was Doubles runner up in ‘Road to Wimbledon’ National series held in Delhi. She has the honour to be the only girl to get selected by AITA (All India Tennis Association) to represent India for prestigious ‘Longines Future Tennis Aces Tournament’ to be held in Paris in April 2016.
2016 is synonymous with celebrations of many types, as it marks the 10th edition of Roland-Garros since the beginning of the partnership between Longines and the Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT), as well as the 20th anniversary of the final match at Roland-Garros between Arantxa Sanchez and Stefanie Graf, which was won by Graf. To commemorate this occasion, Longines was honoured to showcase the Suzanne Lenglen Cup during the ceremony, and the two former tennis players got a chance to hoist it one more time and reminisce about their many victories on the legendary clay courts of the Paris tournament.
The evening also represented an opportunity for Stefanie Graf to publicly unveil a recently launched Longines watch, the Conquest Roland Garros, which the Ambassador of Elegance had a hand in developing. This timepiece is intended for female athletes who want a watch that epitomizes dynamism and performance, but does not compromise when it comes to elegance, just like the six-time French Open Champion. Created specifically as a tribute to the prestigious Paris clay-court tournament, this timepiece sports an anthracite dial, and has a touch of orange on the hands, the dial or the applied indices, as a subtle reminder of the clay that is emblematic of the courts at Roland-Garros. The back of the watch features an engraving of the event’s logo.
