Adil among four for London

Four under-14 tennis players from India have won the opportunity to show their skills on the revered grasscourts of Wimbledon as part of an initiative to boost the development of junior tennis in the country.

Adil Kalyanpur, Siddhant Banthia, Shivani S Ingle and Aarja Chakraborty will be leaving for a 10-day visit to London after emerging the finalists in the India leg of ‘Road to Wimbledon’.  

They will now take on the best junior players from the UK in a 64-strong field at the UK HSBC National Finals at Wimbledon on August 11-16. The tournament is the centrepiece of a ten day stay in London.

These four players reached the finals in the boys and girls categories following a series of qualifying tournaments in Delhi and Mumbai.

In the finals at the RK Khanna Tennis stadium on Saturday, Bangalore boy Adil beat Siddhant 1-6, 7-5, 6-4. Pune girl Shivani won the girls’ title 7-5, 6-7, 6-3, overcoming a stiff challenge from Aarja.

Former player and tournament director Paul Hutchins and Wimbledon head coach Dan Bloxham were present during the finals.

“Indian players have good skills but they need to improve their physicality and fine tune the technical aspects.

“It is important that they keep competing against international players, especially the Europeans,” said Bloxham.