About As

The conceptual creator of the “Tenis Pro” tennis club in Sarajevo was a great tennis enthusiast, the first post-war Davis Cup selector for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Namik TERZIMEHIĆ, who, together with Haris KAFEDŽIĆ, founded the citizens’ association called Tennis Club “TENIS PRO” Sarajevo at the beginning of 1996, with the club’s first registration dating back to April 11, 1996.

The basic motto and guiding idea for the establishment of the club was the revitalization of tennis in Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the promotion of healthy upbringing for young people after the traumas of war. Instead of numerous negative challenges for young people, our desire was to offer a socially beneficial option of engaging in tennis and, consequently, to foster the creation of new tennis champions, following the devastating aggression on our country where almost all tennis courts in Sarajevo were destroyed and tennis as a sport hardly existed.

A group of tennis enthusiasts gathered around Namik Terzimehić and Haris Kafedžić, who were members of the management of TC “Bosna,” the only tennis club before the war, initiated a successful tennis story in 1996, which was crowned by cooperation with perhaps the most famous tennis club in the world, the Royal Tennis Club from Barcelona, Real Tenis Club de Barcelona 1899, a club with a century-old tradition and world-famous players such as Rafael NADAL, Carlos ALCARAZ, Carlos MOYA, Àlex Corretja, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Conchita Martínez, and many others.

The President of RCTB 1899, Mr. Juan Maria TINTORE, at the request of the then Mayor of Barcelona, Mr. Pasqal MARGALL, and upon the recommendation of journalist Carles BOSCH, who was a war reporter in besieged Sarajevo, established contact with Haris Kafedžić, and with Mr. Tintore’s visit to Sarajevo at the end of 1996, a fruitful cooperation between the two clubs was officially established, which is still active. On that occasion, Mr. Tintore presented our club with a huge amount of new tennis equipment and gear, a gift from RCTB 1899, which we distributed to members of all Sarajevo tennis clubs in his presence. It was then that the spontaneous idea arose to organize an international tennis tournament for boys and girls up to the age of 16, which would be included in the Junior Tour TENNIS EUROPE calendar. With great personal support and lobbying from Mr. Tintore, TENISS EUROPE agreed to include the tournament in its calendar under the name “OPEN RCT BARCELONA 1899 – SARAJEVO 1996,” as a category IV tournament.

Through dedicated work and immense enthusiasm of the people around TC “TENIS PRO 1996,” with the support primarily of the Canton and the City of Sarajevo, as well as other institutions and sponsors, and with the mentorship of RCTB 1899 and the personal engagement of our honorary President Mr. Tintore, our tournament has reached the highest level of “top level events for best players,” of which there are only 7 in Europe (Barcelona, Warsaw, Torello, Aviles, Hummene, Tolentino, and Sarajevo).

For twenty-eight years now, as we have been organizing this already large sports event, the Barcelona club has been providing us with great support. Thanks to them and our sponsors, year after year, we create opportunities for young tennis players from Bosnia and Herzegovina to promote themselves and position themselves on European rankings.

The main sports goal of this tournament is to assist our young tennis players in gaining points and improving their ranking on the Tennis Europe junior list.

Special emphasis has been placed on engaging young people to, through years of cooperation with the Royal Tennis Club from Barcelona, forge new friendships with peers from Barcelona and nurture the traditional friendship between the two Olympic cities.

Every year, the City of Sarajevo and our club host over a hundred tennis players from many European countries, and from year to year, the interest in this prestigious European tournament has exceeded all expectations.

So far, we have had a large number of participants from many European countries such as Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Italy, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Turkey, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Great Britain, Slovakia, Poland, Israel, Cyprus, Estonia, Azerbaijan, and of course, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in recent years, we have also had participants from the United States, Australia, China, Canada, and Japan.

What we are particularly proud of is the fact that our tournament has featured, and continues to feature, now-renowned tennis names such as Marin ČILIĆ, Damir DŽUMHUR, our most successful tennis player of all time, Mirza BAŠIĆ, the 2008 winner Ivan DODIG, Nerman FATIĆ, Tomislav BRKIĆ, Aldin ŠETKIĆ, Nina HASANDEDIĆ, the 2009 winner, Mervana JUGIĆ, Jasmina TINJIĆ, Dea HERDŽELAŠ, Nefisa BERBEROVIĆ, and we particularly highlight the participation of the current world No. 3, Danil MEDVEDEV, as well as Laslo DJERE, Ante and Mate PAVIĆ, Peđa KRSTIN, who were winners of our tournament, and many others who have contributed to the high renown of the tournament.

Every year at the end of our tournament, a delegation from RCTB 1899 and the City of Barcelona attends, and we fondly remember the visits of our honorary president, Mr. Juan Maria TINTORE, who until his death on February 5, 2020, visited Sarajevo 38 times.

At the 25th “OPEN RCT BARCELONA 1899 – SARAJEVO 2021,” we had the honor of hosting the current president of the “Real Tenis Club de Barcelona 1899,” Mr. Jordi Cambra SANCHEZ, and in previous years, the tournament guests included vice president Sonia ROIG, vice president Carlos RODRIGUEZ, as well as representatives of the Tintore family and delegates from the City of Barcelona Berta Tintore and Santiago Tintore.