HCL Tennis Junior Tour and Masters 2016 announced

24 August, 2016, Chennai, India: HCL, a leading global conglomerate today announced the launch of HCL Tennis Junior Tour and Masters in the city. The national level tour is scheduled from 29th August to 30th September, 2016 and will witness four championship series (CS 7) tournaments across Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow and Pune.

HCL Tennis Junior Tour is being organised under the aegis of All India Tennis Association (AITA) and is supported by the respective state tennis associations. Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academies (MBTA) is the Knowledge Partner for the Junior Tour and Masters.

The tour is divided into two categories – Singles and Doubles playoffs for U/12 and U/14, for both boys and girls. HCL will organize additional “Plate events’’ in each of the four venues along with the championship series. The “Plate event” will provide an added opportunity to the players in each category to qualify for the main draw.

A total of 16 players in the Singles category (across U/12 and U/14 for both boys and girls) will compete in the HCL Tennis Junior Masters at the Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida in the week of November 14th , 2016. 14 of these will be selected basis the AITA points collected through the tour, while two winners will be selected from the “Plate events”.

The Masters will follow a knockout format and the winners in both U/12 and U/14 categories will be sent to a week-long all-expense paid training session to the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain. The runners-up will be sent to MBTA’s high-performance center in Kochi for an all-expenses paid two weeks training program.

Speaking on the initiative, Sundar Mahalingam, Chief Strategy Officer, HCL Corporation said, “At HCL our philosophy is to ‘touch lives’ and this is also at the heart of our sports initiatives. With the HCL Junior Tour and Masters, we are nurturing talented young players in the country and our association with AITA this year will ensure that the performance of these players counts in their rankings nationally.”

He further added “We brought Tennis to schools in 2015-16 in Delhi and Chennai through HCL Inter School Tennis Challenge that received a phenomenal response in both cities. With the Junior Tour, we are taking tennis to national level for the first time and expect to reach over 1000 talented players across the four zones in the country.”

Gaurav Natekar, Arjuna Awardee and CEO, Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academies said, “We are happy to continue our association with HCL and to be able to support the young tennis players in the country through tournaments like the HCL Junior Tour and Masters. This tournament will provide an opportunity to the players to improve their AITA ranking and test their mettle in the four zones. This is a unique effort to give the sub juniors a platform to play more matches and prepare them to handle competitive games.”

Bharat Oza, Hon. Executive Vice President & Secretary General, All India Tennis Association, said, “AITA is happy to associate with a conglomerate like HCL and we welcome their efforts to promote tennis among young players across the country. We look forward to working together and are confident that this partnership will help strengthen the tennis ecosystem in India.”

The schedule of the HCL Tennis Junior Tour matches is as follows:

Region	Dates	Venue
Chennai	29th August – 2nd September	Nungambakkam Stadium
Kolkata	5th September – 9th September	Bengal Tennis Association
Lucknow	19th September – 23rd September	Gomti Stadium
Pune	26th September – 30th September	Deccan Gymkhana