Tennis takes center stage this week at the Club Náutico facilities with the Sevilla Tennis Open Ricardo Villena Memorialwhose 32nd edition has been presented to the media. The competition, scoring for the national ranking and the IBP Tennis Circuit in the 500 category, is held on this occasion in the women’s category from Thursday to Saturday with a team made up of 16 players. The start of the tournament was scheduled for this Wednesday, but due to the unpleasant weather conditions, it was decided to start on Thursday, trying to squeeze the round of 16 and quarterfinals into this day.
The clay courts of the Sevillian club, with free entry for the public from the round of 16 until the grand final, scheduled on Saturday at 12:00 p.m.are once again the scene of an already classic event on the calendar that distributes 1,000 euros in prizes and has José Castro as judge-referee. Its origin dates back to 1971 with the then called Cordiality Trophy, which pays tribute to its founder in this second stage, which began in 2011.
Together with the president of the Nautical Club, Cayetano García de la Borbolla Vallejoand the director of the tournament, Alfonso de Alarcón, the opening ceremony of the tennis event was attended by the territorial delegate of Culture and Sports of the Government of Andalusia, Carmen Ortiz; the delegate of Sports and Health Promotion of the Seville City Council, Silvia Pozo; the president of the Ateneo de Sevilla, Emilio Boja; or Colonel Juan José Arbolí, as well as representatives of the sponsoring and collaborating companies and the main clubs in Seville.
Solidarity aspect
As is customary and hallmark since it began its journey, the Open Sevilla Memorial Ricardo Villena has taken advantage of the occasion to exercise its solidarity function, in this case making its financial donation to the Balia Foundation for childhood, which helps children and adolescents at risk of social exclusion in order to try to guarantee them a future.
With the delivery of the symbolic check, provided by the La Caixa FoundationBalia joins the list of associations previously recognized by the Club Náutico, whose list includes Parkinson Sevilla, the Alalá Foundation, the Andalusian Association for the Fight against Leukemia, the Seville Food Bank, Cáritas, the Order of San Andrés, the Sehop Foundation, ASPACE, ASOCIDE, the Yo Nemalínica Foundation, Somos tu ola and Rutas de Sevilla.
As for the competition itself and as the main novelty in this edition, just as it happened on its silver anniversary, it should be noted that the tournament is held in the women’s category. And she does it with the one who was the winner in 2016 as a great favorite, María José Luque from Córdobafirst seeded as number 130 in the Spanish rankings.
The second contender for the title is the junior from Cádiz Elena Morales Dorantes, 166th in the ranking, completing the seeded table with María Gajete from Madrid and the Sevillian from Club de Campo. Ana Luque Peronaalso included among the 200 best in Spain from positions 183 and 192, respectively.
Rocío Álvarez, representative of Náutico
After this quartet, the list of participants includes the disciple of Agustín Boje Paula Munoz (221), the players from the FAT Technical Center Adriana Coltorti (241), Lucía Hickey (404) and Laura Gómez (574), the Sevillian from the Real Club Pineda Margara Villar (244), the Castilian-La Mancha Paola Giner (344), the Cordoban Laura Rabasco (378) and Cristina Muela (509), the Valencian Anna Felip (570) and the member of the Nautical Club and veteran player from Pineda Rocio Alvarez (613). And as guests of the organization, they complete the picture with wild cards Extremaduran Ruth Torres (630) and Ceuta’s promise Salma El Amrani (1,313).
The 32nd Open Seville Tennis Memorial Ricardo Villena, which allocates its solidarity function to the Balia Foundation for Children, is organized by the Club Náutico Sevilla and the Andalusian Tennis Federation with the collaboration of the Municipal Sports Institute of the Seville City Council, La Caixa Foundation, Active Business & Technology, La Torrijada, Royal Spanish Tennis Federation, IBP Tenis, Blanco Paris Foundation, Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), FGO Cinematic, Medinaceli Catering, Coca-Cola, Cruzcampo, Hilton Garden Inn Sevilla, Grupo Portillo and Grupo Axvi.
