Four young Indians compete for Road to Wimbledon places

India's top under-14 tennis players will vie for a place in the finals at the Road to Wimbledon Masters tournament held at Delhi and Chandigarh.

Sanjana Sirimalla (Left) was the winner of the 2018 Road to Wimbledon tournament.

The Road to Wimbledon Masters event will be held on the grass courts of the Delhi Gymkhana Club and the Chandigarh Club for girls and boys respectively from Tuesday.

The tournament featuring the top-16 boys and girls in the under-14 age group will provide the opportunity for the finalists to compete on the grass courts of Wimbledon in the Road to Wimbledon Finals, the UK under-14 championship in August.

The players have been divided into four groups of four each, and will compete on a league cum knock-out basis.

Apart from conducting the tournaments, the Wimbledon Foundation and the organisers also help the juniors imbibe the nuances of the game from experts like the Rolex Ambassador, Vijay Amritraj, apart from Jeremy Bates, the former Davis Cup and Fed Cup captain of Britain and Lucie Ahl, the former UK No.1 woman player.

RELATED | Prajnesh: To beat Basilashvili at his best satisfying

In collaboration with Magic Bus, the Wimbledon Foundation also engages in lending a helping hand for the social cause, using tennis as a platform for upliftment of the underprivileged.

In trying to ensure further growth of grass court tennis, it was also announced that a grade-1 junior tournament would be introduced in the ITF under-18 circuit from this year in Nottingham to make it a
three-week grass circuit experience, along with Roehampton and Wimbledon.

More interestingly, the organisers have announced that there would be an under-14 international event during the second week of the Championships in Wimbledon from 2022.

Ayushmaan Arjeria and Pari Singh will be the No.1 seeds in the boys and girls sections respectively in the events to be held in Chandigarh and Delhi.

RELATED | Wawrinka to meet Federer at Indian Wells, Nadal cruises

Sanjana Sirimalla had made the final of the UK under-14 championship in Wimbledon last year, while Udit Gogoi and Chirag Duhan had won the boys doubles title.

Former British Davis Cupper Jamie Baker has taken over as the Tournament Director, from Paul Hutchins who had to retire from the position owing to ill health.

"We are working with talented young international players to give them opportunities to develop their grass court tennis abilities in a competitive setting", said Jamie Baker.

The Road to Wimbledon events are also held in Japan, China and Hong Kong.