The 2012 PWC Men’s Invitational Championships begins Tuesday, January 31st at The Cayman Islands Tennis Club. This year’s field of participants could make this the most competitive tournament that we have ever seen in Cayman; even more competitive than last year’s pwc tournament. The matches will begin at 5:30 PM, Tuesday, and will continue throughout the evening as well as the week. The finals will be played on Saturday, the 4th of February. All tennis fans are welcome to watch the Island’s most competitive tournament every night free of charge!

The PWC Men’s Invitational Championships will have US$10,000 worth of prize money, and is in its sixth staging. According to tournament director Rob Seward, this year’s tournament could boast the toughest field in the tournament’s history. “It is fantastic to have a tournament in the last three years that has had the past Champion come back to defend their title; and although we have not had two of the same Champions in consecutive years we have been able to bring new Champions and other players that have been able to enjoy what the Cayman Islands has to offer.”

Last year’s Champion, Marcio Torres, who was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, will be trying to defend his title against some of the ATP ranked international players as well as some of the top regional players in the Caribbean from Jamaica, Barbados and Bahamas. Marcio should be one of the favorites to take home the Championship because of his past victory in Cayman.

A little history of last year’s Champion, Marcio attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Last year he defeated his fellow teammate from UNC at Greensboro Tony Mule who gained the title from past ATP Player Juan Rios in the 2010 PWC. Marcio turned pro in 2003 and has steadily climbed the doubles rankings. He earned his top ATP ranking so far in April of 2008 when he reached 134. He is currently participating in tennis tournaments around the world and resides in Florida.

The men’s singles winner will walk away with US$2,500 and the beaten finalist, US$1,250, while semi-finalists get to take home US$500 each, and US$250 will go to each quarter-finalist.

For the doubles competition, US$2,000 will be awarded to the winning team, and US$1,000 to the runners-up, with the semi-finalists receiving US$500 each. Stefano Ianni, from Italy, will be making his first appearance to Cayman.

Stefano who has been ranked in the top 300 in the world as a singles player and a 182 personal best in the world in doubles could possibly be the biggest challenge to the 2011 pwc Champion, Marcio Torres. Others that will be making their first trip to the Cayman Islands will be Haydn Lewis, Barbados, and Marvin Rolle, Bahamas, who were both respectively ranked on the ATP tour.

Three local Caymanian players will also be participating in the tournament this year; Nikhil Jha, Mica Koll and youngster, Alex Leonard. All past and current juniors who have participated in the After School Junior program at The Cayman Islands Tennis Club in South Sound. Four local Island pros will be participating in the event. The two South Africans, Dale Avery and Adam Bayley will be representing

The Cayman Islands Tennis Club. Both Dale and Adam have coached the local Alex Leonard. They will compete for the title along side, local Ritz pro, Ilian Nachev. Three top Jamaicans will be looking to claim the title and take home $2,500 USD for the 1st place prize. It will not be easy for there will be 13 other players competing for the same goal. Yussuf Migoko, Jamaica’s number two Davis Cup player will be leading the Jamaican field along with the crew from Montego Bay of Marcus Malcolm and McCoy Malcolm.

The Cayman Islands Tennis Club expresses their deepest gratitude to PWC, the main sponsor of the tournament. This will be their sixth year sponsoring the event and without them it would have been impossible to stage such a successful tournament. The Cayman Islands Tennis Club is also very excited to have Cayman National for a first year of sponsoring.