Singapore now has a purpose-built tennis home, a WTA 500 tournament on its calendar and, since September, a sportswear brand planning to sign local players for the first time. That last piece comes through Avid Sports, Wilson’s authorised distributor for Southeast Asia, which has signed multi-year partnerships with The Kallang Group and the Singapore Tennis Association (STA). The agreements place equipment, coaching support and services along a route that runs from beginner courts towards national representation, and they raise a question that will outlast any single announcement: how does a small city-state turn growing tennis infrastructure into players on the international stage?
The short version: Avid Sports, Wilson’s authorised distributor for Southeast Asia and a subsidiary of ANTA Sports, has signed multi-year partnerships with The Kallang Group and the STA. At Kallang Tennis Hub, Wilson becomes Official Venue Partner, with a Wilson Pro Shop on site. With the STA, it launches its first athlete scholarship programme for Singapore players, covering up to 16 players across the U12, U14, U16 and Senior categories, along with equipment and apparel for 10 STA coaches a year and Wilson balls from the Red, Orange and Green (ROG) programme through agreed STA tournaments. A separate offer, “Stringing Across the City”, provides free stringing at Wilson stores in five countries. Between them, the initiatives reach players from the first ROG courts to the senior ranks.
What the partnerships cover
Avid Sports leads the local rollout, which spans the courts, the player pathway and the professional game. At Kallang Tennis Hub, managed by The Kallang Group, Wilson is an official venue partner, with visible branding and a dedicated Pro Shop where players can find equipment, product advice and services close to the courts. The agreement with the STA rests on three pillars: the Singapore Tennis Athlete Player Scholarship Programme, the Community and Coach Initiative and the STA Official Ball Initiative. Scholars will receive Wilson performance equipment and apparel, with programmes to support talent at key development stages.
The agreement also marks the first time Wilson will sign Singapore players, with opportunities for Wilson-sponsored players from Singapore and overseas to run clinics and mentoring sessions with emerging talent. On the professional side, Wilson was the Official Ball Partner of this year’s Singapore Tennis Open presented by BNP Paribas, which the release frames as the top end of the same strategy. As Morty Ge, Wilson’s Head of APAC, puts it: “Our role is to connect the dots.”
From the ROG court to the national team
The structure of the STA agreement mirrors the stages a player moves through. The Official Ball Initiative begins with the ROG programme, where children learn on Red, Orange and Green balls, and continues through agreed STA tournaments and competitions. The scholarship then picks up players at the U12, U14, U16 and senior levels to help them progress towards national representation and international competition. There’s also the coach component: 10 STA coaches will receive Wilson equipment and apparel each year to train and guide players across those stages.
The venue is built around the same idea. Kallang Tennis Hub opened to the public in phases from 15 April 2024, and Sport Singapore described it as supporting the training needs of both high-performance athletes under the STA and budding players under the ActiveSG Tennis Academy. STA is also the programme partner at the Hub, according to the release, which puts the scholarship, the coaches, and the courts under one roof.
A hub, a WTA 500 and a long tour history
The Kallang Tennis Hub is the country’s first international tournament-ready indoor tennis facility, with seven indoor courts, 12 full-size outdoor courts and two junior-sized courts. It hosted the Singapore Tennis Open’s return in early 2025 as a WTA 250. In 2026, the event stepped up to WTA 500 and moved to the OCBC Arena, with a 28-player singles draw and a prize pool of roughly US$1.2 million, according to organisers. Their June announcement highlighted Alexandra Eala, then world No. 32.
Singapore has also hosted tour tennis before: an earlier ATP Tour event ran for nine editions between 1989 and 2021, according to Wikipedia’s record of the tournament. The country also hosted M15 events in April 2026, an entry-level tier of the men’s ITF circuit, so the calendar now includes events at several levels of the sport.
Free stringing for any racket
“Stringing Across the City” is the part of the package open to the widest group of players. Wilson’s direct-to-consumer stores in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam will string a racket of any brand and any frame with no service charge. Players can buy Wilson strings in store or bring their own, so a casual player can have a racket professionally strung without a service fee, whichever brand they play. Wilson hasn’t yet said how long the offer runs, so a quick check with your nearest store is worthwhile before heading over.
What to watch next
The release describes the programmes as multi-year, and further details, such as how scholars will be selected and how long they stay in the programme, are yet to be shared. No participation or performance targets have been announced either, which means success can be measured in several ways: more children on ROG courts, more Singapore players on international ranking lists, or something else entirely.
The first measurable moment may come when the first group of scholars moves up through the age categories and into senior competition. Whether Singapore’s next internationally ranked players emerge from this particular mix of equipment, coaching and facilities is a question only the next few seasons can answer.
