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News Releases
Kia to Serve It Up Again at 2009 Australian Open
2009-02-01
 Kia Motors Corporation, a maker of quality vehicles for the young-atheart, is proud to serve as the major sponsor of the Australian Open, the first tennis grand slam tournament of the year, for the eighth consecutive year. Kia’s sponsorship of the 104th Australian Open continues to encourage greater off-court participation of fans by extending the popular Kia Fan of the Day vote to online audiences.
The competition, which is a colorful and fun addition to the tournament, is decided by thousands of public votes. Every day, two Kia Fans of the Day will be chosen for the most entertaining attire by accounting for crowd reactions to images of creatively dressed fans projected on the giant screens in Rod Laver Arena as well as online
votes through the Australian Open website (www.australianopen.com).
The winners of the Fan of the Day will be awarded a special Kia gift pack and automatically entered as candidates for the Kia Fan of the Australian Open 2009. The Kia Fan of the Day winners with the highest votes will be awarded with the Kia Fan of the Australian Open 2009 grand prize. Euisun Chung, President of Kia Motors Corporation said, “For our sponsorship to be effective we understand that we have to connect with the young-at-heart fans and give
them something back.
Unlike previous tournament sponsors, we did not insist on merely branding the tournament itself but focused on supporting other elements - the Kia Amateur Open and Kia Fan competitions - and work with Tennis Australia to make this the most complete sporting occasion of the year.” The Australian Open is Kia’s longest running major global sports sponsorship and takes place in Melbourne from January 19 to February 1, 2009. Kia will supply of a fleet 101 official tournament vehicles which will transport players, officials and VIPs safely and conveniently to and from Melbourne Park.
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Rafael Nadal, Kia’s global brand ambassador,
uses the Kia Motors official tournament vehicles
to travel to and from Melbourne Park during the
Australian Open.
| At the 2008 tournament, Kia committed to sponsoring the tournament until 2013 and deepened its relationship with tennis further by extending its partnership with world number one men’s ranked player Rafael Nadal as the company’s global brand ambassador. Kia also continues to support grassroots tennis through the Kia Amateur Australian Open. A field of 10,128 amateur hopefuls has been narrowed down to 32 players through preliminary elimination rounds. The 32 finalists from 14 countries will take part in this year’s Kia Amateur Australian Open World Final from January 29 to February 2, 2009 with the dream of winning one of the four titles up for grabs.
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