U-14 AITA ranking tennis tournament inaugurated

OST Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Sep 23:
Well-known Davis Cup player and former national tennis coach Akhtar Ali inaugurated the AITA Tennis Ranking Tournament 2013 at IBCS in the SOA University campus here on Sunday.

The tournament is being organised by SOA University in association with the Odisha Tennis Association (OTA).

As per the schedule, the Under-14 tournament will be held from September 23 to 27 and the men’s tournament from September 30 to October 4.

Both the tournaments will be preceded by a qualifying round due to high participation.

In the Under-14 category, 55 players from Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Assam and hosts Odisha would participate in the tournament.
Amit Beniwal of Haryana (all India rank 35) is the top seed for the boy’s singles event in the Under-14 category while Karnataka’s Muskaan Rajan is the top seed for the Under-14 girls’ singles event.

In the Boy’s Under-14 section, eight players from Odisha have found place in the main draw with Nishant Kumar (all India rank 61) and Swastik Pradhan (all India rank 82) being seeded number two and three respectively.

Four Odisha girls including Alisha Samal (all India rank 92) and Rutuparna Choudhury (all India rank 112), who have been seeded number four and five respectively, will be playing in the main draw.

The winners and runner-up in the Under-14 category will get 25 and 20 points respectively.

Among others, managing member of the SOA University Gopabandhu Kar and vice chancellor of the University RP Mohanty were present on the occasion.