Dear Participants & Coaches, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to you all to The International School of The Hague (ISH) and the City of Peace and Justice and I hope you get a chance to see parts of this wonderfully multi-cultural city. Once again, ISH is delighted to host the tournament at the very well resourced Tennis Centre, De Rhijenhof. Our sincere thanks to the club for the usage of the facilities for the duration of the tournament.
As always, a fundamental element of an ISST tournament is the community collaboration of hosting our guests and thanks to all our parents who have assisted in this regard in making the tournament possible.
ISST Tennis tournaments are normally nail-biting affairs with both the individual and team events hanging on results throughout the competition and I have no doubt that it will be the same this year.
My personal thanks go to my excellent Athletic Director, Mr. Omar Boutayeb, who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get the tournament prepared.
Having been an Athletic Director (a long time ago!), I am looking forward to spending some time at the event and to witness strong competition, fair play and good team ethics. We have been very fortunate over the years with the amazing quality of the tennis professionals who keep pushing the boundaries of the sport; you only have to look back at the 2017 Australian Open Men’s Final between the two great rivals, Federer and Nadal to witness sport at its best and sportsmanship at a premium after the game.
“Tennis is a tough sport – there are no draws. But if there was one, I would have been happy to accept a draw with Rafa tonight – really.” Roger Federer. And Rafa Nadal on the same game: “Being honest, in these types of matches, I won a lot of times against him. Today he beat me, and I just congratulate him. “ Australian Open 2017.