This year’s Australian Open will have a truly international flavour with 36 youngsters from across the Asia Pacific region heading to Melbourne Park to take part in the Australian Open 2006.
This year’s Australian Open will have a truly international flavour with 36 youngsters from across the Asia Pacific region heading to Melbourne Park to take part in the Australian Open 2006.
Six children from Singapore have joined others from Philippines, Korea and India as well as 276 local kids to form the 312-strong Aviva Ballkids team.
The Aviva Ballkids program sets high standards for participants, so the youngsters who make it to the final team have practiced hard to ensure they have the requisite skills to stand on court along side tennis champions the calibre of Lleyton Hewitt or Serena Williams.
The six Singaporean Aviva Ballkids are 15 year olds Vanessa Boey and Leong Chee Jun, 14 year old Naomi Yang, 13 year olds Brian Koh and Laura Lim and 12 year old Silas Yang.
Each of the children practiced hard to ensure that their skills were sufficient to gain selection for the Aviva Ballkids program, practicing drills of rolling and throwing tennis balls as well as intensive fitness training. Some of the children even sought tips from last year’s Aviva Ballkids to ensure that they did not miss out at the Aviva Ballkids selection trials held in Singapore in mid September 2005.
When asked about their motivations for wanting to join the Aviva Ballkids program, each of the children spoke about the attraction of being part of a Grand Slam tournament and the chance to be on court with their tennis heroes.
“It’s a chance in a million to be up front at the net or back at the baseline watching the action instead of sitting on the couch and watching it on television”, said Naomi Yang.
This sentiment was shared by Leong Chee Jun who said: “I applied to become an Aviva Ballkid because I wanted to experience the atmosphere at the Australian Open 2006 and hopefully meet some of my favourite players, especially Roger Federer.”
Silas Yang said he is most looking forward to the opportunity to meet Australian tennis champion Llyeton Hewitt and to make friends with the other Aviva Ballkids. He said he applied for the program to gain experience, to increase his confidence on the court and to perform to the best of his ability.
Thirteen year old Laura Lim said that she originally applied to join the Aviva Ballkids program because most of her friends were applying, never dreaming she would be good enough to be chosen for a Grand Slam event. Laura now has high hopes for what the Aviva Ballkids experience will be like.
“I hope it will be a totally fresh and exciting new experience. I’m looking to gain skills I can use for life and I also hope to meet many new friends in Melbourne, and bond with those coming from Singapore”, Laura said.
All six Singaporean children will join their fellow Aviva Ballkids for a special BBQ event at Melbourne Park on Wednesday 11 January where they will meet Melbourne Lord Mayor John So, minister for tourism the Hon John Pandazopoulos and Aviva chief executive officer, Allan Griffiths.
The event is a chance for all of the Aviva Ballkids to come together for the first time before the Australian Open, to get to know each other and to enjoy a good Aussie BBQ in Melbourne Park’s beautiful Garden Square before the pressure of their Aviva Ballkids duties begins in earnest.
The Aviva branded uniforms worn by each Ballkid will have a highly visible presence in every match played during the Grand Slam event which begins in Melbourne on 16 January.
Allan Griffiths, chief executive officer of Aviva Australia, said he was looking forward to meeting many of the Aviva Ballkids on Wednesday, particularly those who have traveled such a long way to be part of the Aviva Ballkids team.
“I was very proud of the efforts and conduct of the Aviva Ballkids in 2005 and look forward to the upcoming event in 2006”, said Allan.
“One constant on-court presence in an Australian Open tennis match is the Aviva Ballkids, which is a perfect way to have our Aviva brand on show around the world,” Allan said.
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For more information, please contact:
Jessica Lee
Director of Communications, Asia
Phone: +65 63217729
Mobile: +65 97698261
Notes to editors:
Aviva is the world’s sixth-largest insurance group and the biggest in the UK, with 60,000 employees serving 30 million customers worldwide.
The Aviva group, created by the merger of CGU and Norwich Union, traces its history back over 300 years through the founding companies of Commercial Union and General Accident. We operate in 25 countries worldwide, and in the UK and the Netherlands.
Aviva’s Passion
In 2005, we invested over £15 million worldwide on sponsorships, community activities and charitable causes. We support projects that reflect the scale of our business and our plans for growth as an international provider of life insurance and investments.
Consumer research shows that consumers associate the Aviva name with “life”, “health” and "vitality” so it is appropriate that sports feature widely in our sponsorship portfolio.
- Under our trading brand Norwich Union, we are the No 1 supporter of the UK Athletics team including a significant investment in grassroots athletic development schemes for young people.
- In 2005, Norwich Union will also be launching a three-year sponsorship for Wheelpower - the British Wheelchair Sports Foundation (www.britishwheelchairsports.org).
- In 2005, Aviva announced a S$3 million badminton sponsorship of the Singapore Open for three years from 2005 to 2007.
- In 2005, Aviva Australia committed to a four-year sponsorship of the Aviva Ballkids at the Australian Open, the Tennis Grand Slam of Asia-Pacific. 2006 will also see the selection of ballkids from Singapore, India, Philippines and South Korea.
- 2005 is also the inaugural year for the title sponsorship of the Aviva-Cofco China Masters. The event is sanctioned by the International Badminton Federation. The 2005 event took place in Beijing from and the 2006 event will be taking place in Chengdu, Sichuan.