FIFTH seed Cassius Pereira and Mohammed Sahwan will face off tonight in the most interesting game in the men's singles first round to kick-off the GPIC Tennis Championship at the Bahrain Tennis Club (BTC) courts in Juffair.

Thirty two players, all lined-up in the men's singles event, will be seen in action today on the first day of the tournament, organised by the club for the 26th successive time and is sponsored by GPIC.

The 16 matches will be divided into three playing sessions, and are due to take place on five of the club's seven courts.

In the first session, which gets underway at 5pm, Ahmed Kamal hopes to make solid comeback to tennis tournament today when he takes on Khalifa Rashdan while Ahmed Mahmood encounters Filipino Norman Abastillas.

Exciting

The second session will then be played from 6pm onwards and includes some exciting clashes as Ahmed Al Hawaj meets Belgian opponent Oliver Moens, Ebrahim Ismail takes on Khalid Nass, while Ali Fakhro challenges fourth seed Hope Rosal of the Philippines.

Jaffer Al Adraj takes on India's Sangil Leo in the first game of the third and last session. This session also features an interesting game between Hussain Khadem and Filipino opponent John Delos Santos.

Some of the kingdom's most prominent players are in lined up for the men's singles event, which is for the Goys President's Cup.

Top players include Saad Al Khan, who has been seeded first. Other favourites are second seed Khalid Janahi, third Ahmed Ebrahim, sixth Adrian Henson, seventh Ronnie Cifra and eighth Hassan Al Mutawa.

There are six more contests lined up this year. They are the men's super singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, veteran men's above-40 singles, veteran men's above-40 doubles and veteran men's above-50 doubles.