The VLTC, in conjunction with the Malta Tennis Federation, will be hosting the Nexia BT European U-16 tournament between September 3 and 8.

The international event is the first for VLTC and comes after having successfully organised several European U-14 tournaments these last five years.

To launch the tournament, VLTC have just held a Green Tennis competition for children between the ages of nine and 12 years, under the guidance of Marco Cappello, head coach at the club.

At the end of the event, Karl Cini, international business partner at Nexia BT, presented medals while Mark Camilleri, MTF deputy president, handed certificates of participation to the young players.

VLTC president Paul Micallef gave details of the Euro U-16 event during presentations.

The tournament, he said, will consist of boys and girls singles events with a main draw of 48 players in each of the categories.

Boys and girls doubles and qualifiers are also being held.

So far, the competition has attracted significant interest from players across all parts of the continent including Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Re-public, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Liechenstein, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Raphael Sammut, Matthew Cassar Torregiani, Zack Ciappara, Mark Schranz, Alexia Cassar, Katrina Sammut and Rebecca McCarthy are the junior players representing Malta in the tournament.

The matches in the main draw will commence on September 3 with the finals scheduled for September 8 at the Atlas Insurance Court.

In a statement, the tournament organisers thanked Nexia BT for their sponsorship and Simonds Farsons Cisk for their support.

They also urged the local sporting public to attend this event and give their backing to the players.