Hong Kong's tennis juniors take on some of the world's top young talent in the Hong Kong Open Junior Championships starting on Saturday at the Sports Institute in Sha Tin.
The competition, held until October 19, is part of the on going annual ITF Junior Circuit which sees top international under-18 players compete for world-ranking points.
World-ranked local juniors Venise Chan (749 singles, 681 doubles) and Martin Sayer (428/421) can rocket up the ITF lists with good shows in the boys' and girls' singles and doubles respectively.
The SAR tournament is worth 250 points to the singles champions and 180 to the winners of the doubles.
A total of 48 boys and 32 girls will compete in the main singles events, with many also competing in the doubles.
Several top locals advance directly into the main draw, which starts on Monday.
Among the boys, Ronald Chow (the Hong Kong junior No2), Michael Lai, Jack Hui Cheuk-wai (winner of the 2002 Open doubles title with partner Brian Hung Lap-hei), Josh Finkelstein, Ng Kwok-yeung and Gilbert Wong will not need to qualify.