Leading tennis players for Khelo India

Leading tennis players Karman Kaur Thandi, Y. Pranjala, Zeel Desai and two-time national women’s champion Mahak Jain are scheduled to compete in the women’s under-21 section of the Khelo India Youth Games to be held in Pune in January.

National junior champion Humera Shaik, Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty, Shivani Amineni, Kaavya Sawhney, Vaidehi Chaudhari and Salsa Aher are some of the other players figuring in the list released by the All India Tennis Association (AITA).

Ramya Natarajan, Akanksha Bhan, Yubrani Banerjee and Smiriti Bhasin have been kept in the reserve list.

Emerging young players like Manish Sureshkumar, Nitin Sinha, Aryan Goveas, Siddhant Banthia, Sacchitt Sharma and Isaque Eqbal are in the under-21 boys’ list. Calvin Gomei, Megh Patel, Mann Shah and Digvijay Pratap Singh are the other players in the AITA list.

For the under-17 event, Krish Patel, Denim Yadav, Sushant Dabas, Divesh Gahlot, Ajay Malik and Dev Javia have been chosen.

In the girls’ section, it will be Gargi Pawar, Vipasha Mehra, Sharannya Gaware, Bhakti Shah, Sudipta Senthilkumar and Rutuja Chaphalkar.

Even if some may be eligible, the rules stipulate participation in only one age group for each player.

The draw for the event will be 16 for singles and eight for doubles. Apart from the six players nominated by the AITA on the basis of their performances and ranking, the School Games Federation of India will nominate six, CBSE will nominate one, the Games organisers will have two wild cards and the host State will also have one nomination.