SILCHAR, Feb 7 - The Tennis Club of Silchar will host first ever ranking based North East tennis championship. This was informed by Dr Kiranmoy Das, general secretary of the club on Tuesday.
Dr Das said that over 100 players from various districts of Assam along with neighbouring states of Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura are likely to take part in the four-day event starting from 9 February at the tennis club. �This will be a professional tournament and rankings will be calculated as per the All India Tennis Association (AITA). The tournament is aimed to focus on the players in the under 18 category,� Dr Das maintained.
Debajyoti Swami, the tournament director said �we have organised North East based tournaments in the past but for the first time the Tennis Club of Silchar shall have rankings based on the performance of players in the tournament which shall boost the players.�
It may be mentioned that the players have been grouped in categories like under- 12, under-14, under 18 ( Male), and under 18 (Female). All matches in these categories will be singles to played in the synthetic courts in the club premises. Moreover, the organisers have also kept category of veteran tennis players in the age groups of 35+, 45+ and 55+. Dr Das said that the overall prizemoney of the tournament will be Rs 1.40 lakh.
On the other hand, the organisers said that they have appealed to the Sports Ministry for financial assistance. They have thanked the Assam. Tennis Association for its cooperation in their venture.
The Tennis Club of Silchar, established in 1944 released a brochure of the forthcoming event as well.
