Marina Open 2 (Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tour) @ SDAT, Chennai

IWTT (Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tour) and Aastha are organising the Marina Open 2 Tennis tournament for wheelchair-bound people. This tournament is scheduled to be held at SDAT Stadium, Nungambakkam, Chennai.

Dates: August 1 to August 4, 2018.

Timings: 9 A.M. to 4 P.M.

Entry: Free of cost.

I made the above video to help the organisers promote the event and I also went to the press release function held on July 31, 2018 at SDAT Stadium, Nungambakkam. Below is a video I made to show you all the glimpses from the Press Release & Player Registration function. Psst… Somdev Devvarman, the former Indian No. 1 Singles Tennis player is speaking in this video!!

 

Here is the Official Press Release –

31st July 2018

II Marina Open AITA Ranking Wheelchair Tennis Tournament Begins

A record 42 players are to participate in the second edition of the Marina Open AITA Ranking Wheelchair Tennis Tournament to begin on Wednesday, 1st August at 9 a.m. at the well-known SDAT Tennis Stadium, Chennai.

Mr. C.B.N. Reddy, Hon. Secretary, TNTA said Tennis is a game for all – able and differently abled. He said that these events should also be held in the districts. He appreciates ASTHA founder Mr. Sunil Jain for his untiring efforts to promote the tournament.

Sunil Jain, a Chartered Accountant from Bangalore and Founder of ASTHA Foundation said that the Wheelchair Tournament will the beneficial for the disable will be held year after year. We thank the Sponsors especially the Main Sponsor L & T for Contributing wholeheartedly to the cause. The fact that the number of entries has increased from 32 to 36 among Men and 6 to 8 entries for Women denotes the steady and growing popularity of the Sport. He also thanked the other supporters Canara Bank, Apollo Hospital and FM Fever.

Somdev Dev Varman, India’s former Top Tennis Star hailed the development of Wheelchair Tennis in India. It was important that sport of Tennis spread far and wide and included the disabled. He was confident that in time these players will also make a mark in the International sphere.

Paneesh Rao, Head of HR, L & T Technology said “It gives us immense pleasure to support this great initiative of Wheelchair Tennis In India and partner with Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tour in achieving the vision of producing Indian players amongst the Top 100 in the world in this category.”

Nar Singh of AITA who is in charge of wheelchair Tennis development in India appreciated the organisers for conduct of the National Ranking Tournament once again this year. He said that annual conduct of such events augurs well for the sport.

Mr. Hiten Joshi, Tournament Director highlighted the salient features of the tournament. The number of entries for the Men’s event was 36 and the top seed is Shekar Veeraswamy of Karnataka. Tamil Nadu is represented by eleven players S. Balachandar seed 2 and D. Mariappan seed 4 are leading the Challenge. In the Women’s Event, there were a total of 8 entrants with Prathima Rao of Karnataka being the top seed. Other in the fray are K.P. Shilpa of Karnataka and Khushbu Ganatra of Maharashtra

The Men’s Winner will get 30 points and the Runner Up will get 22 points while the Women’s Winner will get 15 points and the Runner Up 12 points. The Men’s Doubles events will also be conducted. The tournament carries a total Prize Money of Rs. 2, 32,000/-.

The first and second rounds of the Men’s Singles and the Round Robin matches in the Women’s event will be played best of 17 games and from quarterfinals onwards the matches will be played best of 3 sets.

The Finals will to be played on Saturday, 4th August 2018

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