KUCHING: Five boys and three girls from Sarawak are among more than 110 players from 26 countries taking part in the 12th Chief Minister’s Cup ITF World Junior Tennis Championship (Group 3) here next month.

The Sarawak boys will be led by 15-year-old Ariez Elyaas Deen Hisham, currently No. 667 in the International Tennis Federation junior rankings, and seeded 30th for the tournament from November 2 to 9 at Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) Clubhouse, Jalan Crookshank here.

The other juniors are 14-year-old Mohd Assri Merzuki and exciting Oscar Chang, 16, Marcus Chua, 14, and Razmee Rawi, 16.

In the girls’ category, Sarawak will be fielding 16-year-old Wena Tan, 16, Cecilia Lai, 15 and Jane Chang, only 13.

SLTA president Patrick Liew, also organising chairman, said Ariez would be the only Sarawakian and one of the two Malaysians in the main draw.

According to him, the other state players will be given wild cards for the qualifiers scheduled on November 2 and 3.

“I think Ariez will give the foreign players a good fight. Depending on the luck of the draw, he may get to second or third round or even further,” he said, adding the other state players to watch were Assri, Oscar and Wena.

Sarawakians have yet to win this tournament since it was staged in Kuching in 2001. However, it has been the springboard for the foreign players to advance career, most notably 2006 Asian Games gold medallist and world No. 82 Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei, the 2001 winner of the girls’ title.

As of yesterday, 112 players from 26 countries, including the US, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain have confirmed their participation but Liew is optimistic that the number could reach 200.

He said the tournament could still attract a lot of foreign players despite the current global financial crisis and economic downturn.

“We have been able to attract many foreign players ever since the tournament was first held in 2001. The financial crisis will have little impact this time.

“Players pushing to go professional will come to collect points to improve their rankings. As the tournament is being held in November, players from Europe will want to come here to play in warmer weather and get away from the winter back home,” he said. India will send the largest contingent with 30 players, including 17 girls, while Malta, Tunisia and Northern Mariana Islands will be making their debut.

Hsieh Cheng-Peng of Chinese Taipei (ITF ranking 47th), will be the boys’ top seed. He is Su-Wei’s younger brother.

In the girls’ category, the top seed will be Australia’s Jade Hopper, ranked 113th by ITF.

Liew also said there would be no welcoming dinner this round.

Instead, players, their chaperons and team officials would be treated to a barbecue at the SLTA Clubhouse on November 5.

“This function will be held in an informal atmosphere — a change from the very formal dinners previously. We will see how this works before deciding to do it again in future tournaments,” he added.