THE Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) yesterday issued the schedule of the GPIC Tennis Championship, which gets underway tomorrow at its courts in Juffair.

There will be 16 matches - all men's singles - on the first day of this annual event, organised by the club for the 26th time. It is sponsored by GPIC.

Six matches are due to tip off at 5pm and six will be played at 6pm, while the remaining games on day one begin at 7pm.

Three qualifying matches are scheduled for tonight in the men's singles, where French Arnold Robert takes on Omar Haider and Richard Hull of the US faces Isa Al Sammak while Ali Al Asfoor plays Yaqoub Yousef in an all-Bahraini encounter.

Some of the kingdom's most prominent players are in lined up for the men's singles event, including Bahrain-based Spaniard Daniel Clemente, who has been seeded first.

Abdulmohsen Algosaibi is the tournament's second seed. The third seed is Naser Khonji and fourth is Ahmed Al Hawaj, while Cassius Perreira is the fifth seed.

Other favourites are Hamad Al Fardan, who is seeded sixth, and Filipino entrant Ronlad Cifra, the seventh seed, while Mohammed Karahi enters the tournament as the eighth seed.

There are five more contests lined up this year. They are the men's super singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, veterans' singles and veterans' doubles.

The draw was held at the club's premises, and was conducted by members of the organising committee and players taking part.

The draw results can be found on the BTC website www.bahraintennisclub.com.