SuperUser Account / 08 September 2007 / Categories: Junior Activity 2008 IC Junior South American Challenge 2008 WORLD JUNIOR CHALLENGE REPORT ON THE SOUTH AMERICAN QUALIFYING ROUND Argentina, September 6-8, 2007 INTRODUCTION The South American Qualifying Round was played at the Pilará Tenis Club, in Pilar, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, from Thursday September 6 through Saturday September 8, 2007. Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay participated in the event. Appendix A lists the members of participating teams, and their respective Captains. Messrs. Eugenio Saller and Hugo Altamirano attended the event as IC delegates from Brazil and Uruguay, respectively. Eduardo Soriano and Oscar Furlong, both members of the governing committee of the IC of Argentina, acted as General Umpire and Tournament Director, respectively. DEVELOPMENT OF THE EVENT Teams arrived at Pilará Tenis Club on Wednesday September 5 (except Chile, that arrived the night before), and were able to practice that day. A meeting of all captains and event organizers was held at 7:00pm on Wednesday, September 5, and the official welcome dinner was held thereafter. The event took place on September 6, 7 and 8, 2007, as planned. See Appendix B for the Official Scoreboard. Argentina won the round, having beaten Uruguay 6-0, Chile 5-1 and Brazil 6-0. The final point count does not reflect the development of the matches, as there were many that were quite close. After the round had been concluded, there was an exhibition held by the Fundación Cecilia Baccigalupo (www.cbaccigalupo.com.ar), an Argentine foundation that works with mentally deprived children, trying to insert them into the practice of various sports (football, basketball, hockey and tennis). Gabriela Sabatini attended the event and joined the exhibition, as did all participating teams. It was a memorable closing to four wonderful days of excellent tennis and great comradery, in the true spirit of IC ideals. The award ceremony was presided by Enrique Morea, president of the IC of Argentina. Eduardo Soriano, Vice president of the ICA bid everybody welcome, and Gustavo Herrero, honorary secretary, administered the delivery of the prices and souvenirs to all participants, with Oscar Furlong and Gabriela Sabatini joining the ceremony. All delegations left on Saturday September 8, following the closing of the event. RULES The rules for the event were established at the Captains’ Meeting on Wednesday September 5, with the General Umpire and the Tournament Director in attendance. Copies of the IC Rules were distributed at the meeting. Though the round was meant to be played under the round robin format, it was agreed that the winners of the first two matches would play each other on the following day and, that if for some reason play was not possible on the third day, the team that won two matches on days 1 and 2 would qualify for the Final Round. It was agreed that Argentina and Chile would be seeded, given the better ranking of their players, and a lottery was held to determine which team would play against each of them. The lottery determined that Uruguay would play Argentina on the first day, and Brazil would play Chile. As it turned out, play was feasible all three days, and the round robin was completed. Another decision made by the Captains was that the order in which the singles were to be determined in each team would respect the relative ranking of the players involved. E.g. Boy’s Singles #2 could not have a better ranking than Boy’s Singles #1 in each team. A motion was made by Uruguay, and seconded by Brazil, that alternate players be allowed to play, even if the original player they replaced was not injured. Argentina stated that it would not prevent alternates to play, provided that the decision was unanimous. If one participating team preferred to uphold the original ruling, the latter would be enforced. Chile agreed with Uruguay and Brazil, and after a brief discussion the following set of rules were adopted for the round: - Alternate players could be made to play doubles unrestrictedly; - Alternate players could only play singles if the player originally appointed to the team suffered an injury or extreme exhaustion, at the discretion of the General Umpire. - If an alternate player replaced an original player in a singles match, the replaced player would not be able to play during the rest of that day, and he/she would only be allowed to play doubles thereafter. All Captains and the delegates of Brazil and Uruguay recommend that the Council consider adopting this change in the rules for future World Challenges, even of it implies an additional cost to the ICs that choose to send two alternates, as it should not be expected that said expenses will be covered by the Council. The IC of Argentina supports this recommendation. The sending of alternates should be voluntary, and left up to each IC. Buenos Aires, September 10, 2007 Gustavo Herrero Honorary Secretary IC of Argentina Print 7124