CAIRO: The Palm Hills International tournament concluded Sunday with great Egyptian successes to report, both in the singles and the doubles competitions. The doubles partnership of Mahmoud Ezz and Omar Hedayet earned the title as after beating Leandro Migani (Argentina) and Maxime Teixeira (France) in the final. Karim Maamoun was only beaten in the singles final by the second seed Victor-Valentin Crivoi of Romania.The tournament had seen several upsets, with the early losses of the top seeds Juan-Martin Aranguren (Argentina) in the singles event as well as Alexey Kedryuk (Kazakhstan) and Alexandre Sidorenko (France) in the doubles. But as far as the local spectators were concerned, the success of Maamoun and Ezz/Hedayet made up for the unexpected results. Another notable achievement was Sherif Sabry, who reached the semifinal stage of the tournament, but lost there to the eventual champion Crivoi.The pleasant setting of the Palm Hills Club, as well as the open layout of the courts and their surroundings, made for a very relaxed nine days of official competition. There was great tennis to be seen and enjoyed, and it only whets the appetite for more in the future. The organizers of the tournament, the Palm Aroussy Tennis Academy (PATA) at the Palm Hills Club, are hoping to bring the tournament back next year, or to host an even bigger one. The general manager of the club, Hady Mowafy, was full of praise for the team behind the staging of the event, and said he hoped that in the future they could also stage a women's tournament and not limit themselves to men's tennis only. Mowafy is the former president of the Gezira Sporting Club, which used to be the venue for the biggest international tournament in Egypt, the Cairo Open. He believes staging women's events will help raise the profile of the sport in Egypt, attract a bigger audience, and encourage young women to participate in sports in general. Tennis in Egypt has been in need of some energy being invested in it to catch up with other sports in terms of achievements, public awareness and interest. The Egyptian Tennis Federation has shown interest in getting things moving again, especially with the willingness of people such Hassan El Aroussy, co-founder of the academy to help.
