Kerala   

Returning to ace status

IN GOOD FORM: Nicole Clerico of Italy waits for a return as her Romanian partner Agnes Szatmari serves in the Kerala Open ITF women's tennis tournament at the Trivandrum Tennis Club courts on Thursday. — Photo: S. Mahinsha

The Kerala Open is here to stay with the inaugural tournament proving to be a big success. The conduct of the $25,000 ITF women's tennis tournament — the first international tournament to be staged at the Trivandrum Tennis Club (TTC) courts after a decade — has won praise from players and the ITF supervisor Nitin Kannamwar.

In his evaluation report, Mr. Kannamwar appreciated the efforts of the organisers for running the tournament smoothly. He was impressed with the nicely maintained clay courts, practise courts and hard working court maintenance staff of the TTC.

Perhaps there are few tennis clubs in the country that can boast of having an illustrious history like the TTC. The club was the brainchild of keen tennis fan Col G.V. Raja, the founder president of the Kerala Sports Council. The club was inaugurated on November 11, 1937 and Col. Raja was able to get top ranked tennis stars of the time including Bill Tilden to play exhibition matches during the inaugural function of the club.

The TTC was a favourite venue for many Indian stars too as tournaments were conducted regularly when Col Raja was at the helm. There was a lull after his untimely death. The number of tournaments dwindled and despite having some of the best facilities — seven clay courts and two synthetic courts — in the country, TTC lost opportunity to be a permanent venue for tennis events in India.

The Kerala Open has proved to be an ideal platform to rekindle the lost interest of the public in the game. Though the sprinkling of foreigners did not have the galleries bursting at its seams, there was a motley crowd that braved the scorching sun to watch the proceedings on the court.

Kerala is already on the world tourist map and the organisers are hoping to cash in on the State's appeal to market the tournament more aggressively. All the main draw players of this year's tournament were provided free hospitality at four star beach resorts and the four semi-finalists have been promised a weekend holiday at a five-star resort at Kumarakom. This would do a world of good for making TTC one of the most beautiful and popular venues in the country.

TTC secretary and tournament director H. Krishnamoorthy said, "it is the wonderful support extended to me by the members of the club which has made all this possible. We are determined to continue with the conduct of the tournament annually and hopefully on a larger scale in the years to come."

M.R. Praveen Chandran

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