OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2008. At the Kremlin Cup press centre, an official Bank of Moscow press conference was held regarding the Bank’s support for the Kremlin Cup-2008 international tennis tournament.

The main step taken by the Bank of Moscow in support of tennis has been to become the General Partner of the Kremlin Cup-2008, specifically to create the tournament prize fund, which this year amounts to 2 438 000 US dollars. The Bank of Moscow has been supporting the Kremlin Cup since 1998 and, since 2003, has been its General Partner.

Other measures organised by the Bank of Moscow to promote tennis throughout Russia include the children’s drawing competition titled "I Draw Tennis" and bonuses awarded to the best regional tennis clubs and federations achieving the greatest success in organising sport and providing sports training at the local level.

In 2008, for instance, specific bonuses were awarded to the following regional federations:
"Best training of young tennis players" — Vsevolzhskaya Children’s Tennis Academy;
"Best training of young tennis players in the Far East Region" — Khabarovsk Tennis Club;
"Best organisation of regional tennis events" — Volgograd Region Tennis Federation;
"Development of the tennis infrastructure" — Moscow Region Tennis Federation.

The all-Russia children’s drawing competition "I Draw Tennis" was held for the 7th time and gathered 1 000 works from all regions in which the Bank has branches.

The winners of the 2008 competition were Albina Travnikova (6 years) and Elizaveta Neverova (5 years) from Solikamsk, Artyom Proshin (14 years) from Kirov and Ivan Chubirin (3 years) from Orsk. These children were given an opportunity to visit Moscow and attend the Kremlin Cup. All costs connected with the trip and the excursion programme were covered by the Bank. During the official Bank of Moscow press conference, they were awarded winners’ diplomas and prizes.

According to Senior Vice-president of the Bank of Moscow Dmitriy Akulinin, "the Bank of Moscow sees it as its social mission to develop sport in general and tennis in particular, so we are taking planned steps to popularise tennis. At the same time, we are striving to expand both the geographical coverage of these activities and to involve different age groups, not only adults, but also children, thereby laying the foundations for their continued sports development".

The press conference culminated in the awards being made to winners of the tennis tournament among journalists, which was held for the first time in October 2006. The tournament was held on the initiative of the Bank of Moscow and was also dedicated to the Kremlin Cup. This year, the 3rd annual tennis tournament among representatives of the mass media was held on 27 September, with over 30 journalists playing from the leading Russian media: Kommersant, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Argumenty I Facty, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiyskaya Gazeta, Moskovskaya Pravda, the Television channels NTV, TV-Centre, Russia Today and many others.

As a result of the series of games, in which journalists demonstrated that they can not only write about tennis, but also manage a racquet quite proficiently, the winner of the 2008 Tournament was decided: NTV+Tennis correspondent Sergei Deryabkin. Second place went to NTV+Tennis commentator Andrei Nikiforov and third to Alexandra Balashova of the magazine Tennis and Business. As in previous years, the Tournament winners received valuable prizes: a certificate for a trip to Europe, an annual club card for one of Moscow’s best sports clubs, and the like.

Participants in the awards ceremonies for the winners of the children’s competition "I Draw Tennis" and the tennis tournament winners included the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kremlin Cup, President of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpischev, the General Director of the Kremlin Cup Igor Tikhonko and Senior Vice-President of the Bank of Moscow Dmitriy Akulinin.