Big shot for Sri Lanka tennis

Sri Lanka tennis will receive a vigorous boost when the incumbent president of the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) Anil Khanna along with its former secretary who is a member of the Board of Directors (ATF) Suresh Subramanium masterminds a plan to uplift the standard of tennis by introducing an Asia Tennis Circuit from which the local players will benefit immensely.

At the Annual General Meeting of the ATF held in Colombo which also coincided with the SLTA centenary year, the ATF elected president Anil Khanna (India) said that Sri Lanka always had a strong tennis base and extremely popular like in India.

He further said that attempts are made to develop tennis in Asia and Sri Lanka by introducing a tournament with 6000 USD in prize money with a main draw of 16 to 32 players with two back-to-back events held in every country that desires to conduct the event.

"More importantly the winners will get wild cards for two ITF challenges for high prize money tournaments so that young players from Asia can progress into rankings much faster. The move will help small countries like Sri Lanka than already developed countries like Japan, China, Thailand and India", Khanna said.

By participating and winning tournaments the players will be eligible for a travel grant to play in other countries in the Asian circuit.

RA