NEWS
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario opens Barcelona KIA’08
This year the tournament offers $145.000 in prizes, and in 2009 will be Category B.
Barcelona KIA’08 was officially launched on 5 March at a function that took place where the tournament is to be held between 7 – 15 June, the David Lloyd Club Turó. Representing the organising committee, Barcelona KIA, was Arantxa Sánchez Vicario as Director of Sport for the tournament, and José Luis Rivera as General Direcor, along with Anna Pruna, General Secretary of l’Esport de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Pere Alcober, sports delegate of l’Ajuntament of Barcelona, Pedro Muñoz, President of Real Federación Española de Tenis, Gisèle Schmidt, Vice-President of the Federació Catalana de Tennis, and José Manuel Sánchez, manager of the David Lloyd Club Turó.
Both Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and José Luis Rivera pointed out the growing influence that the tournament enjoys and plan for an ambitious future. “This year we are making an important step forward in coming to the David Lloyd Club Turó. An even bigger step will take place next year” explained Rivero. “In 2009 the professional circuit changes and we are prepared for that move and we will host a tournament worth $225.000 USD. Our objective, and our dream, is to host a tournament worth $600.000 USD in 2010”, said Arantxa Sánchez Vicario.
The ex world number one revealed the first three confirmed players for Barcelona KIA’08. “It is confirmed that Maria Kirilenko, a player with much charisma, Julia Vakulenko, who is improving rapidly, and the French Emilie Loit, also among the top world players, will all be coming to Barcelona. Furthermore the wild cards will be for Spanish players.
Anna Pruna expressed her approval of the existence of “such a strong commitment” for female sport. Both the representative of the Generalitat de Catalunya and Pere Alcocer, from the l’Ajuntament de Barcelona, emphasized the effort made by Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, José Luis Rivera and the rest of the organisation. “Barcelona will have a women’s tennis tournament of the highest level, and when everybody is acostombed to this, we will have to remember who has made all this effort to make it a reality”, said Alcober.
Lastly, Pedro Muñoz thanked the ex-tennis players Alberto Berasategui, Albert Costa and Javier Sánchez Vicario for their presence at the event, while Gisèle Schmidt pointed out the pride that she expected Barcelona to be able to take from being the scene of an important event and she hoped that “the efforts would be compensated with a great public turnout”.
