Over 2,000 local school children will have the opportunity to see some of the world’s best tennis players in action thanks to free tickets from the KPMG Legends Tennis Championships.

The free tickets are available to all schools across the Cayman Islands and the individual schools are only responsible for transporting the students to and from the matches.

The free tickets for students are being offered by the organisers and sponsors of the KPMG Legends Tennis Championships in conjunction with the Ministry of Sports and the Tennis Federation of the Cayman Islands.

Jenny Frizzelle, Schools Programme Coordinator for the Tennis Federation, said: “This is a huge opportunity for school children of all ages to observe the top athletes in the world first hand. The Cayman Islands Tennis Federation has spent a great deal of energy introducing tennis into the primary, and now secondary, government schools over the past two years.

“For these students to get to watch true legends compete in Cayman is monumental and will no doubt further their interest in the sport. And the number of tickets offered shows the commitment of the event promoters to the development of junior tennis on the island. We are delighted that this opportunity has been made available to students island-wide and express our gratitude to the promoters.”

The participating students will watch the live matches on Thursday 17 November at 1pm and on Friday 18 November at 1pm – when the entire event stadium at The Courts at the Ritz-Carlton will be filled entirely by local students.

Mike Ryan, developer of The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman and long-standing host sponsor of the Legends tournament, said: “An important part of the 2011 KPMG Legends Tennis Championships is the involvement of local junior players and our support of local junior tennis programmes. We hope that the free junior tickets will encourage more of Cayman’s youngsters to become junior tennis players and get involved in the Tennis Federation’s junior development programme.”

The Tennis Federation of the Cayman Islands’ Junior Tennis programme is a recipient charity of the non-profit 2011 KPMG Legends Tennis Championships’ proceeds along with the tournament’s longstanding charity – the Cayman Islands Crisis Centre.

In addition to the free student tickets and a tennis equipment donation valued at $12,000 to the Tennis Federation’s junior programme by the KPMG Legends Tennis Championships, the tournament is also offering local junior players the benefit of being in the competitive spotlight. This year there is also the KPMG Junior Legends tournament with the Junior Finals being played as the first match on each evening of the pro championships.

“One of the overall goals of the tournament is to expose as many Cayman juniors to the sport as possible and to encourage them to get involved,” said tournament organiser Dan Kneipp.

More than 5,500 tickets have been offered with prices starting at $5. A three-day pass to attend each night of play cost $45. VIP packages were also available, as well as participation in the fund-raising Pro Am portion of the tournament. Tickets for public sale were sold exclusively through www.caymanboxoffice.com, a Cayman Free Press online product. The Finals are sold out, but there are still some limited VIP packages, Semi-Finals and Quarter-Finals and Whites Party tickets available for purchase.

Taking place from Wednesday through to Saturday at The Courts at The Ritz-Carlton, 2011 KPMG Legends Tennis Championships player line up includes Grand Slam tournament winners Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Mark Philippoussis, Wayne Ferreira, Chanda Rubin, Jimmy Arias, Stephen Huss and Murphy Jensen.

An exciting new format offers both singles and doubles matches and the event welcomes the sport’s top female players for the first time this year.

The 2011 KPMG Legends Tennis Championships begin with the gala dinner featuring Tony Blair on Wednesday 16 November followed by the First Round matches on Thursday 17 November, the semis on Friday and the finals on Saturday followed by the festive Whites Party at The Ritz-Carlton.

For more information on the Legends Championships 2011, or to purchase tickets, visit www.compasscayman.com/tennis