The aim of the Champions Tennis league is to play along with the growing interest of the sport in India said Arjuan Rao, CEO of Second Serve Pvt. ltd., which owns and operate the league.
The six city-based teams tennis league was launched last year under the guidance of Vijay Amritraj, a former Indian tennis player as well the chairman and managing director of Second Serve Pvt. ltd.
The second edition of the competition which will take place from 23rd November to 6th December will see 13 matches being played in that period.
Arjun on Wednesday said interest in tennis is growing vastly throughout the country and CTl provides the perfect platform to keep up with it.
Also he feels this league will help in improving the interest among the sport not only in major cities but also in minor ones. Thus two new city-based teams in the form of Nagpur and Raipur have been included this time around. Mumbai, Chandigarh and Hyderabad teams remain from last year, while Bangalore, Pune and Delhi teams have pulled out.
“In minor cities, people are used to witness cricket matches, but not too much of other sports. So cities like Nagpur and Raipur will benefit a lot through this league,” he said.
Furthermore, he feels that the limited tennis action which takes place in the country like the Chennai Open or Davis Cup, which recently was conducted in Delhi, are often conducted in the big cities. So this opportunity will help in improving the interest among the sport in other places too. This time around the league will be played for an additional four days compared to last year. Arjun said the reason was to help the team spend more time in their home cities.
“last year the team spent at maximum three days in their home cities before going for away matches. The four extra days this year will allow them to spend 4-5 days in their home cities,” he elaborated. In each team there will be a WTA player, an ATP player, an Indian male representative and a legend (a retired Grand Slam winner or a Grand Slam finalist). In addition to it, two junior players (a boy and a girl) will be present, who Arjun said will be chosen by the AITA.
“This will be a great learning curve for the youngsters as they will get to practice with some of the finest players in the world of the tennis and will be present around them through the event. So they get to learn a lot,” he opined. “Karman Thandi, who represented Delhi last year and Pranjala Yadlapalli, who played for Mumbai in 2014, had a good 2015. So hopefully many more youngsters will come in the same.