The early birds of Loutraki

Before the opening ceremony: Both tennis tournaments are already in full swing

CSIT WSG2025 Loutraki

The opening ceremony of the 8th CSIT WORLD SPORTS GAMES will take place on Wednesday in the Municipal Stadium of Loutraki “Christos Thodis”, but the competitions have already begun one day earlier. The tennis players are the “Early Birds” of Loutraki: Their matches are being played in three different venues since Tuesday, 9:00 am. Harald Burghardt from Gänserndorf in Austria is Chairman of the CSIT WSG Technical Commission for Tennis for the 8th time. In addition to his personal record in this function, there is also a record number of participants in Loutraki and Corinth: “110 players in 17 teams from 10 countries take us to the upper limit of our possibilities,” says the 64-year-old Austrian.

Neither in Rimini 2008, Tallinn 2010, Varna 2013, Lignano 2015, Riga 2017, Tortosa 2019 nor in Cervia 2023 were nearly as many players registered. “It's a challenge, but also a great success for us,” reports Harald, while the first matches between Italy and Austria are underway in the background. There will be no individual medals at the three facilities at the Municipal Stadium of Corinth, the Municipal Tennis Courts of Loutraki and the SPORTCAMP, a remarkable sports facility of international standard, in Loutraki (veterans): “Tennis at the WSG consists of two pure team competitions for the general class and for the seniors.” And who had the best start? “Italy and Denmark seem to be really strong.”