The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Efforts on to revive tennis in Berhampur

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Tuesday, Feb 19, 2008
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Efforts on to revive tennis in Berhampur

Staff Reporter

It used to have eight courts, but the number declined to two

BERHAMPUR: Seventy five years back Berhampur used to have eight tennis courts, now it has only two, which speaks of the decline of lawn tennis as a sport among the new generation in the city. Dearth of courts is the major reason behind this decline of popularity of tennis in Berhampur, said Arjun Swain, a veteran tennis player of the city. The two existing clay courts in the city are in the premises of a private club, which makes its use by players from outside almost impossible.

So, very few youngsters decide to take up tennis as their sport. To increase interest towards tennis among general youth the veteran tennis players and officials of the city had got together in 1998 to establish at least two more courts in teh city, which could be open for all tennis players.

Due to their efforts foundation stone was laid by the then Additional Chief Secretary of the State for the establishment of two tennis courts on a patch of land adjacent to the Berhampur stadium. It was to be on a land patch, which is still under the NCC wing of the Defence Department. Berhampur stadium is yet to get completed due to non availability of land. Mr. Swain said the NCC officials had agreed to allow two tennis courts to be laid on the land. The Berhampur Development Authority took up the work of constructing the tennis courts. But due to some reasons these two courts never got completed.

Veterans’ plea

Only a half finished cement court remains at the spot. Even this cement court is out of limits of the general public, wanting to practice tennis on it as it is inside the defence campus. The veteran players of the city feel it is high time for the BDA to finish construction of these two tennis courts so that the new generation could take up tennis as a sport.

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