Tennis Jamaica President John Azar says the new, world-class lighting system at the Eric Bell National Tennis Centre has opened the door to hosting more international matches.

Azar told the Jamaica Observer that, in the past, many tennis events were affected due to the lack of light, and so it is a huge success for his association to be able to flick the proverbial switch.

“I am extremely happy to say that after decades, we at Tennis Jamaica have finally installed lights at the Tennis Jamaica headquarters which is huge. I mean, it opens a different realm of possibilities for us in terms of events,” Azar said.

The tennis boss continued: “Many times events are unable to conclude on time because of poor visibility, and so this is important for us going forward. It is not just lighting but world-class lighting, and this will allow us to host international events.”

Azar said that due to the installation of a lighting system, there is now the possibility to introduce team tennis.

“The lighting is very important because what we are also going to be doing going into next year is introducing team tennis, which will be played on weekends down at the National Tennis Centre. Obviously, your options are limited if you only play during the day. And so the lights are very important.

“The fact that we are going to be resurfacing the courts is also very important, and so we are going to have a world-class facility there and hopefully we will use that to own our world class players. This year was a record in terms of the number of events we have hosted in Jamaica, both local and international, and if all goes well in 2023, it will only get better,” Azar said.

“It was a pretty penny to install the lights, but thank God again for the level of support we got from corporate Jamaica; and the Jamaica Olympic Association, we were able to make projects like this possible, and we do feel like, as I said, it is very important to our vision going forward into the new year and beyond,” the tennis boss added.

— Ruddy Allen