Berhampur, Feb. 26: The Ganjam District Tennis Association is preparing to host a national-level tennis tournament here from February 29.
The national ranking tournament, which is being organised jointly by the All-India Tennis Association (AITA) and the Odisha Tennis Association, will be held here from February 29 to March 4.
"We are happy that 24 seeded tennis players of the country are taking part in this tournament. This is for the first time that so many national-level tennis players are coming to the state," said revenue divisional commissioner of southern division Bhaskar Jyoti Sarma and inspector general of police (southern range) Amitabh Thakur.
Sarma and Thakur are the two advisers of the tournament.
Players from 14 states, including Kerala, Delhi, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, are taking part in this tournament.
Odia tennis player Anshuman Bhuyan, who is ranked 45th in India, is also taking part, said secretary of the Ganjam District Tennis Association Ranjit Panda.
"We are also organising a 40-plus and a 50-plus doubles' tournament for veterans on March 5 and 6," he said.
"The qualifying matches are set to be held on February 27 and 28. The AITA singles' open will be held simultaneously at one synthetic court in Berhampur police superintendent's office and two synthetic courts at Army Air Defence College Golabandha.
The 40-plus and 50-plus veteran tournaments will be held concurrently at two clay courts at the Union Club and at another clay court in the police superintendent's office," said organising secretary of the Ganjam tennis association Arjun Swain.
The AITA open tournament will feature a prize money of Rs 1 lakh in both singles' and doubles' categories, while the 40-plus and 50-plus veteran tournaments will have a prize money of Rs 50,000.
The Ganjam District Tennis Association has been instrumental in imparting tennis coaching to young talents in its tennis academy and encouraging them to take part in various national and state-level tournaments, said Swain.
