30th National High School Invitational Tennis Championships, Japan

There are 2 major tournaments for Japanese high schools on the tennis calender: the "Inter-High" held in august and the "Senbatsu" invitational championships (where all teams have come through regional qualifying) held in the city of Fukuoka in march.  (click below to continue reading続きは以下のリンクをクリック)

Tecnifibre is present this week at the invitational tournament, providing a public stand and a stringing service for players (as shown in the photo below).

Armed with a small video camera, I have filmed various scenes from the tournament so that I could put together a series of short "Tecnifibre VLOGs".

As you will be able to see from the videos which will be uploaded over the next few days, the Japanese high-school tennis scene is very different from other countries (it is very "professional" and the team atmosphere is very strong eg. everyone wears matching team gear, strong support for team mates).

There is also strong media coverage (in national+local newspapers and local TV coverage for the finals) and sponsoring by major tennis companies (Bridgestone-Tecnifibre, Wilson, Dunlop-Babolat, Mizuno).

For our Japanese readers, you can find out more on the official website of the tournament by accessing http://kyushu.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/feature/tennis2008/