Participants of the tennis championship relax after lunch at the sports hostel in JRD Tata Sports Complex. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, April 3: They hail from poor backgrounds and have to hire rackets to take part in national-level championships. But there is no dearth of enthusiasm as far as competing with the best in lawn tennis is concerned.

Meet the talented youngsters, who performed brilliantly in the ongoing Tata Steel-All India Tennis Association (AITA) Talent Series Tennis Championship.

Mukesh Kumar Sharma, a 13-year-old, hired a racket to play in the tourney from the Tata Tennis Training Centre.

After his father’s death, his brother who sells scissors at Sakchi, has been supporting him. A Class VII student of ADL Society Middle School, Mukesh has been playing the game for the past six months and has qualified for the main draw of the event. His interest in the sport started when he saw the brilliant performance of Sania Mirza. Now he wants to become an international tennis star: “I practice in the morning, go to school and study late into the night. One has to be good in studies and I want to do my family proud.”

He is not alone. Ranjan Kumar Thakur, a Class VI student, is the son of a barber working near Karim Talkies who wants to realise his father’s dream of becoming an engineer. But he also wants to be a tennis star. He never pressurises his family for equipment, says Ranjan, who qualified for the second round of the main draw.

The tournament also witnessed an eight-year-old battle it out to prove her mettle. Sushant Rimil Burh, a Class III student of R.V.S Academy, is the youngest player of the tournament.

Mukesh wins

Mukesh today ousted Bengal’s Mudit Kedia to reach the quarter finals of the boys’ singles under-12 section of the Tata Steel-All India Tennis Association Talent Series Tennis Championships played at the JRD Tata Sports Complex.

In the girls section, although Jharkhand player Srishti Smriti Burh reached the girls’ singles under-14 quarter finals, she lost to Adrita Banerjee of Bengal.

In other matches, Jharkhand’s Ranjan Thakur was defeated by Bengal’s Sumant Lenka in the pre-quarter finals of the boys’ singles under-12.