CHANDIGARH, OCT 29 : The Vijay Amritraj backed Champions Tennis League (CTL), today announced the draft of the Indian juniors into CTL’s six city teams.
The six city teams of CTL are Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Punjab. The juniors who have been drafted are: Junior Girls: Delhi: Karman Kaur Thandi, Gavit Batra.
Punjab: Rishika Sunkara, Vidit Vaghela. .
Mumbai: Pranjala Yadlapalli, Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash
Pune: Shweta Rana, Prajwal Dev.
Bengaluru: Souwjanya Bavisetti, Vinod Cheruku Vasisht.
Chennai: Nidhi Chilumula and Sasikumar Mukund.
CTL is at the forefront of promoting tennis at the grassroots level and being a part of CTL is a great opportunity for juniors to mingle with, train and get tips from some of the world’s best tennis players.
International legends namely Mark Philippoussis, Thomas Enqvist, Pat Cash, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Greg Rusedski and Sergi Bruguera will be leading teams populated with international stars namely Venus Williams, David Ferrer and Mikhail Youzhny to name a few, alongside popular Indian stars like Somdev Devvarman and Saketh Myneni, amongst others.
Indian tennis legend and global ambassador of the sport, Vijay Amritraj said, “Champions Tennis League was founded with a vision to bring tennis in India to the grass root level. It is in this very spirit that we welcome our junior stars to the League. CTL provides these upcoming champions the opportunity to interact with the stars and legends of our time, as well as the support and encouragement to allow them to become legends in their own right”.
All India Tennis Association (AITA) president Anil Khanna said, “We at the AITA are immensely proud of our junior stars. An association with Champions Tennis League offers them a wonderful platform to be recognized not only by the Indian public, but across the globe. We look forward to the day these junior champs will be legends themselves, and encourage other youngsters across India to embrace tennis as a sport. We have no doubt in our minds that they will do the country proud.”
CTL teams will feature male and female players with international rankings between No. 5 and No. 25. Each of the six teams will also have an international legend as their playing captain, apart from a noted Indian male tennis player, plus a top ranked junior Indian girl and boy from each city. The teams will also travel to other cities bringing tennis excitement and entertainment in a spectacle that has never been seen on this scale in India before, for tennis.
In its launch avatar, CTL 2014will see the six city based teams play 13 matches over a ten day period from November 17 to 26. The teams will be structured into 2 groups, each having 3 teams, where all teams play each other in a home and away format. The team with the highest number of games won in their respective group will play each other in the grand finale to win prize money of Rs. 1 crore. The runner-up will win Rs. 50 lakhs.
Conceptualised to promote the passion for tennis and inculcate a love for the sport, CTL holds the promise of taking tennis in India to new levels of awareness and popularity.
CTL matches kick off in Delhi and Chennai on November 17 and culminate in the finals on November 26 in Delhi.