Pune: Pune Metropolitan District Tennis Association (PMDTA) has tied up with Tennis Premier League (TPL), to help grassroot programmes in tennis, locally.
The TPL announced this move as part of the nationwide Race to Gold (RTG) initiative, which is aimed at unearthing India’s tennis gems and providing them with scholarships to help further their careers.
This groundbreaking program aims not just to discover talent but to nurture it, year after year, creating a legacy of excellence in Indian tennis.
The TPL and PMDTA will work together and support young aspiring tennis players from Pune along with helping organise tennis tournaments at various age-groups.
The year-long programmes of the PMDTA have been quite good, and have produced some fantastic players, and this drive aligns perfectly with the TPL’s ideology, which aims to ensure that there is no disruption in the pipeline.
Now, the team of TPL and PMDTA aims to further up the ante in terms of creating a competitive but healthy environment for the young players.
Thetournaments, which will be organised by TPL and PMDTA together, will also benefit young players in their district rankings and it will also eventually lead up to the RTG scholarship.
To be a part of the special group who are awarded the scholarship, the young players go through intense district-level tournaments through the year, before forming a batch of 72 players.
These players will be awarded scholarship worth INR 75,000. The scholarship includes an advanced tennis racquet, a professional kit bag, a pair of shoes amongst other tennis equipment and a live TPL experience.
As a part of the the tie up PMDTA and TPL will launch a circuit . The first event will be a Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles tournament from the 5th – 7th April 2024 at SP College followed by a junior category tournament for. Boys and Girls Under 16 and 18 on 13th & 14th April at the same venue
Meanwhile, the TPL also launched their own Mobile App last year, and it is an innovative venture that is helping the league organise many grassroots tournaments across the country.
The TPL App connects the tennis community across India and allows them to interact with each other, and lets tennis players track their progress. It is associated with over 100 academies from various regions of India.
Mr Abhishek Tamhane, Secretary of PMDTA added, “The association between the PMDTA and TPL is great news for the junior circuits in and around Pune, as it encourages competition, which can only help raise the standard of the sport in Pune district.
This partnership has the ingredients to be a very successful one, and we hope it stands the test of time, and more importantly produces a few good players, who will go on to make India proud.”
In the last half-decade, we have seen plenty of interest and good young players in Pune, and it gives us great joy to be in a position to help them, and hopefully open a few doors for them through this collaboration.”
Kunal Thakkur, Co-Founder, Tennis Premier League was elated about this partnership, and said, “At TPL, nurturing talent and providing opportunities for upcoming players is high on the agenda and through this partnership we want to see the best of the best make it to the top.”
Highlighting the transformative nature of the initiative, Mrunal Jain Co-Founder, Tennis Premier League, added, “This partnership with the PMDTA will go a long way in bolstering the grassroot structures in tennis in Pune, and we are confident sooner than later, there’ll be players graduating to the TPL as well.”
