With a minute of silence in memory of the victims in an educational school in Izhevsk the opening of the Russian Tennis Championship began the day before. The tournament started at one of the facilities of Volga Region University of Sports and Tourism - Kazan Tennis Academy.
More than 130 athletes from thirty towns and cities of Kazan will compete for the awards in five categories. Among the participants there are two university students - sophomore Anna Protsenko and third-year student Egor Agafonov.
As Almaz Mingulov, Deputy Minister of Sports of the Republic of Tatarstan, noted, such competitions allow to raise spirit. "Holding the championship in Kazan once again emphasizes that Tatarstan is a sports region. We are grateful to the Russian Tennis Federation for the right to host the competition," Almaz Mingulov stressed.
Rafis Burganov, Rector of the Volga Region University of Sports and Tourism and Vitaly Afanasyev, Vice-president of the Tennis Federation of the Republic of Tatarstan and Director of the Kazan Tennis Academy also took part in the championship opening ceremony.
The competition will last until October 2, the final matches will be held in two stages - September 30 and October 2.
Recall that the championship is the final competition of the PRO series this season. Based on the results of the series tournaments, pools of participants in the XXXII International Tennis Tournament "VTB Kremlin Cup" (October 16 - 23) will be formed.
