Longines Future Tennis Aces 2014 to kick off at the end of the month

PARIS– This year again, Longines gives its support to the most promising young tennis players of the world through the Longines Future Tennis Aces tournament. Partner and Official Timekeeper of Roland-Garros, Longines offers the opportunity to 16 young girls to play from the 29 to 31 May in a unique and magical location in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop, and to measure themselves against the best international tennis players in their age range.

This year, the extraordinary surroundings of the Champ de Mars will host the Longines Future Tennis Aces 2014. 16 girls aged of less than 13 years will showcase their impressive talent and try to win the coveted reward: a great victory at an international tournament on the mythical Parisian clay. In addition, both finalists will receive an annual bursary for their sports equipment until their sixteenth birthday. The selection of the young tennis players, coming from 16 different countries – Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK and USA – was undertaken with the help of their respective tennis federations. These 16 young talents will compete over two days of tournament to qualify for the final on Saturday morning 31 May.

May 27^th and 28^th will be dedicated to the Longines Academy, a training camp that will allow the young players to be under the guidance of the best specialists of the discipline. They will receive invaluable advice to approach the upcoming matches in the best conditions. This privileged coaching session will be reinforced by the presence of the tournament’s prestigious godmother, Marion Bartoli, a former French professional tennis player, who reached the 7^th position in the WTA ranking. She will support the girls during the week and will take part in an exhibition match on Saturday morning, where she will compete against both young finalists and a Longines Rising Tennis Star.

Within the frame of Roland-Garros, Longines highlights a model of its Conquest Classic collection, a steel chronograph that houses an exclusive column-wheel movement. Its black dial is set with one arabic numeral and 11 applied indices with Super-LumiNova. It displays the hours and the minutes, a small second at 9, a 30-minute counter at 3, a 12-hour counter at 6 as well as the date at 4:30. Just as the entire collection Conquest Classic, this timepiece is water-resistant to 5 bar and its screw-down case back is fitted with a sapphire glass.

Longines is proud to support young sports talents and to help them develop their passion, particularly in equestrian sports, with the Longines Future Racing Stars in the field of flat racing, and through the Longines FEI Awards with regards to show jumping, as well as in alpine skiing thanks to the Longines Future Ski Champions program.