POREC, CROATIA - Director of the Croatian Tennis Association Branimir Horvat has announced the start of the main tournament of Istrian Riviera on Tuesday. The tournament with over a hundred players will be played until April 11 with the qualifiers and main tournaments. The tennis tournament with the longest international tradition, the Istrian Riviera, is played as three futures tournaments, each with a prize fund of 10,000 dollars and apart from Porec, city hosts are Rovinj and Vrsar.

- I am exceptionally pleased with the organisation in Porec – Horvat said, pointing out that the tennis players had many courts and halls at their disposal, which is also one of the reasons why players are glad to return to this tournament, apart from the exquisite natural beauties of the cities where matches are played. The interest of players is expectedly great, but there are still more tennis players that audience members.

Rovinj after Porec

According to the rules, only 32 players qualify for the main tournament, while the final of the first tournament will be played on Sunday at 11 hours on the Pical Hotel courts, after which the caravan will leave Porec and go to Rovinj.

- This is a tournament where younger player gain experience, while older players find it a good start of preparations for tournaments which follow the Istrian Riviera – Branimir Horvat said.

The Istrian Riviera, tournament which has marked its 37 th anniversary, is actually the cradle of Croatian tennis, as well as tourism. Many famous home players started winning their first points at this tournament, for example: Zeljko Franulovic, Goran Prpic, Bruno Oresar, Marko Ostoja, Sasa Hirszon, Goran Inavisevic, Ivo Karlovic or Ivan Ljubicic. On the other hand, popularisation of tennis has initialised the construction of many tennis courts, thus every hotel has at least one court today, which was not the norm back in the day.

The torunament started modelled after the French Riviera

The tournament “was launched” in 1972, thanks to a group of enthusiasts from the Croatian Tennis Association and the Porec travel agents decided to start a cycle of spring tournaments along the Adriatic coast, modelled after the popular French Riviera. The first tournament was held on just two tennis courts of Porec`s Picala Hotel and two courts in Umag, while today, Porec is recognised as a top sports-touristic destination, since the largest concentration of tennis courts in Croatia is in Porec, which has a total of 160 tennis courts.

- We care a great deal to have sports events in the city at this time of crisis. Porec has the natural resources and the ability to organise big sports events, which was showed during the recent Davis Cup – Nenad Velenik, director of the Tourist Board of the City of Porec said.

Take a look at the attached photo gallery: Istrian Riviera Tournament Kicks Off.