Four of the best juniors in the country, Asmi Adkar, Rethin Pranav, Rushil Khosla and Sohini Mohanty will compete in the International Lawn Tennis Club (IC) Rod Laver Challenge at the Ariake Tennis Park in Tokyo from June 29 to 29.
Addressing a press conference at the DLTA on Wednesday, Sanjeev Kasal, the president of IC India, mentioned that the Asia-Oceania event was expected to feature four teams including Pakistan.
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As the host, Japan is expected to field two teams. The teams will compete in a round-robin format and the champion would compete in the World Wide Finals to be staged later in the season in California.
With two of the players, Rethin and Rushil, competing in Europe and the other two in Bhubaneswar and Pune, Sanjeev thanked the captain of the Davis Cup team and president of DLTA, Rohit Rajpal, for helping IC make a strong Indian team.
‘’It is a fantastic initiative. The International Club is doing a
great job and we have got the best available players to represent the country”, said Rajpal.
Explaining the format, the captain and manager of the team, Vikram Anand said that each tie would feature two boys singles, two girls singles and doubles for boys and girls. In case of a tie, there will be a mixed doubles match. Each rubber will have two sets followed by the super tie-break in case of one set each.
“Our players are highly ranked. It will be competitive, but we hope to win the event and make it to the next stage”, said Vikram Anand.
Capturing the essence of IC’s objective, Kasal mentioned that the motto of IC, which would be celebrating 100 years next season, was, “handshake across the net, friendship across the ocean”.
“Our objective is junior development. We recently had a talent hunt here, featuring about 700 players. As part of the drive, we help underprivileged children to play tennis”, explained Kasal.
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