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Tokyo, January 24, 2012 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) announced today the start of the Australian Open on January 25, 2012, one of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour's grand slam events, organized by the International Tennis Federation and featuring 20 of the world's top wheelchair tennis players.
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Event Name: Australian Open, one of the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour's grand slam events
Period: From 25 January through 28 January, 2012
Venue: Melbourne park (address: Melbourne Park, Batman Avenue, Melbourne, Victoria)
Organizer: The International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Tennis Australia
The 2012 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour started on January 5, 2012, with the Queensland Open in Australia. This year, as many as 173 tournaments will be held in 45 countries, with total prize money of more than one million US dollars.
The operations of wheelchair tennis are overseen by the ITF, which updates the sport's rankings each week. The NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour, also organized by The ITF, consists of numerous competitions that include The Grand Slam Series, The Masters Series, The ITF-1 Series, The ITF-2 Series, The ITF-3 Series and ITF-Future Series.
Following the US Open in October, groups of the top ranked athletes from each division compete in November at the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters (*1) in Belgium.
More than sixty national wheelchair tennis associations are currently members of the International Tennis Federation.
Approximately 900 athletes compete for positioning in the ITF's wheelchair tennis world rankings.
The NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour is part of the NEC Make-a-Difference Drive (*2) of volunteer opportunities for NEC employees. NEC members volunteer for the Tour in such positions as linespersons, ballpersons and interpreters.
Looking forward, NEC will continue to develop its role in the Wheelchair Tennis Tour as part of becoming a leading global company that leverages the power of innovation to realize an information society friendly to people and the earth.
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Notes
(*1) The NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters
The NEC Masters is the year-end wheelchair tennis world championship, held in Belgium in November. NEC has sponsored the event since 1994.
http://beta.itftennis.com/wheelchair/tournaments/singles-masters/overview.aspx
(*2) NEC-Make-a-Difference Drive
The "NEC Make-a-Difference Drive (NEC MDD)" is a volunteer program where NEC group employees participate in a wide variety of social contribution activities throughout the world. In the fiscal year 2010, NEC employees in 953 NEC locations in 28 countries took part in MDD.
http://www.nec.co.jp/community/necmd/index.html
Customer contact
Joji Akiyama, Social Contributions Office, CSR Promotion Division, NEC Tokyo
E-Mail：j-akiyama@ct.jp.nec.com
Press contact
Joseph Jasper, Corporate Communications Division, NEC Tokyo
E-Mail：j-jasper@ax.jp.nec.com
SOURCE / NEC Corporation
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