With this tournament, Panama is aiming to land itself an official stop on the ATP tennis world tour and contribute to the positive image of Panama and its people. We are certain that this way we will be able to display to the world Panama's natural beauty and the warmth of its people, which will not only help stimulate tourism but also promote the discovery of new values in tennis.

The venue for this tournament is the clay-surfaced tennis courts in the Fred Maduro sports complex at the Llanos de Curundú Plains, where the matches will be held from April 13 to 21, 2013.

The invited tennis players are all ATP members and come from all over the world. In the last tournament held in our country, the winner was the Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva, who with this title reached position No. 100 in the world rankings and could enter the U.S. Open, where he lost in the second round against none other but the number one player in the world, Novak Djokovic.

The ATP is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuit at an international level. There are 66 tournaments in 32 countries on the circuit, awarding from $20 to $30 million dollars annually in prize money.

The points are allocated depending on the event category and the position earned. The most valued tournaments are the four Grand Slams, followed by the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and the ATP Masters Series. The following table summarizes the points given in 2009:

Scores in 2009

Tennis is a sport played in nearly every country around the globe, with an estimated 75 million players worldwide. According to the site www.mostpopularsports.net, tennis is the fourth most played sport in the world, after soccer, cricket, and field hockey.

As a point of reference, it is estimated that in China over 135 million people watched on TV the women's final of the Australia tennis tournament in 2011. That was just one event, one match.

For more information, call 269-8773 and ask for Aldo Montenegro.