The 30-odd young hopefuls will remember Friday for a very, very long time. The kids from the KSLTA's High Performance Tennis Centre Academy, hoping to make it big in the sport, had a whale of a time during a tennis clinic conducted by top Chinese doubles specialists, Chunmei Ji and Shengnan Sun here on Friday.

The kids, mostly in the six to 14 age-group, will not forget the 30-odd minutes they spent with the players and their coach Martin Fassati. The kids not only took turns to hit with the two players, but got useful tips from them as well.

Ji and Sun, semifinalists in the Bangalore Open doubles and scheduled to play their match later in the evening, took some time off to help the kids with their game. Czech coach Fassati, with an eye to spot talent and the mistakes, corrected some of their strokes.

The Chinese players said they were happy to spend some time with the young hopefuls and wished them luck. Some of the kids didn't want the clinic to end, they wanted to spend more time with the players and the coach, learn new things and become better players.

Anjan Viplav, the HPTC coach, said it was a good gesture on the part of the players and their coach to spend time with the aspiring players. The trainees have benefited immensely watching the top stars in action during the Tier II WTA Tour event he said.