CEBUANA Lhuillier President and CEO Jean Henri Lhuillier has been a staunch patron of Philippine sports for more than three decades and as an avid sports enthusiast, he insisted on the inclusion of sports development as one of Cebuana Lhuillier's core advocacies.
As one of the country's most prominent and enduring sports benefactors, Lhuillier is most renowned for his contributions to the elite and grassroots development programs of tennis and softball.
Lhuillier's passion for tennis began in 1998 with the staging of a series of Cebuana Lhuillier Men's Tennis Open tournaments. Since then, he has strived to constantly upgrade the quality of Philippine tennis and supported promising Filipino players at a young age.
The Cebuana Lhuillier Age Group Tennis program, which has held around 2000 tournaments nationwide through the years, has been an avenue in the discovery of future national tennis players.
Lhuillier has also been a huge supporter of the national tennis teams and has been team manager multiple times for Team Philippines in the Davis Cup and Southeast Asian Games.
He has also supported the international campaigns of many top Filipino tennis players like Cecil Mamiit, Eric Tainio, Katharina Lehnert, and Treat Huey in the past as well as present day tennis stars Ruben Gonzales and Francis Casey Alcantara.
For seven years now, Lhuillier has served as the president of the Unified Tennis Philippines (UTP) and has been responsible for supporting and developing top Filipino junior tennis players as they hone their skills by playing in the Asian junior tennis circuit and the WTA future Stars tournaments.
Philippine softball, on the other hand, has sustained its standing in the international arena.
Under Lhuillier's leadership as president of the Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines (Asaphil), the grassroots programs for softball remained strong in the Philippines.
Asaphil conducts the biggest and most anticipated annual softball tournaments in the country including the Summer Grand Slam National Open, Batang Pinoy, Palarong Pambansa, and Philippine National Games, among others.
Asaphil has also been actively conducting softball clinics for players, coaches, and tournament officials.
As the governing body for the sport of softball in the Philippines, Asaphil is primarily responsible for all the needs and requirements of the national players, who are more known as the Blu Boys and the Blu Girls.
The national softball teams have performed extremely well in international competitions.
The Blu Girls have won seven straight Southeast Asian Games gold medals, bagged the silver medal in the 2017 Asian Women's Softball Championship and placed in the top 4 at the same tournament five times.
The Blu Girls have also won against world-ranked teams in the World Cup competitions and were ranked as the top team in Asia prior to the pandemic.
Currently, the Blu Girls are ranked 4th in Asia and 12th in the world.
The Blu Boys, on the other hand, continue to shine in international tournaments, winning four gold medals in the SEA Games and five silver medals in the Asian Men's Softball Championships. The team also finished in the top 10 at the 2022 World Cup.
The Blu Boys are currently ranked 4th in Asia and 10th in the world.
In 2023, Philippine softball made a huge splash in the international arena by qualifying in four Softball World Cups.
Lhuillier has done a lot to help tennis and softball but believes more can be done.
"I'm just getting started. I'm incredibly optimistic about the future of Philippine softball and tennis. I firmly believe we have the potential to be world leaders in these sports, and I am committed to making this vision a reality," he said.
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