· P Sruthi (Tamil Nadu) and R.S. Rajesh Kannan (Tamil Nadu)win the U-14 Singles category for Girls and Boys, respectively
· Rutuja Chaphalkar (Maharashtra) & Akarsh Gaonkar (Karnataka) emerge winners in the U-12 category for Girls and Boys, respectively
· Winners off to a week-long all-expense paid training program at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain
Final-Mahesh Bhupathi with Roshni Nadar Malhotra and the winners & runners-up of HCL Tennis Junior Tour & Masters
Roshni Nadar Malhotra with RS Rajesh Kannan winner of Boys U-14
HCL National Tennis Junior Tour & Masters Concludes With Hard Fought Finals
November 28, 2016, New Delhi, India: HCL, a leading global conglomerate, announced the winners of the HCL Tennis Junior Tour and Masters, a national-level, four-city tour culminating into the Masters, held at the Shiv Nadar University. The winners were felicitated by, Mahesh Bhupathi, India’s first Grand Slam tournament winner and Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Executive Director and CEO, HCL Corporation. The four winners (boys and girls in the U/12 and U/14 categories) of the HCL Tennis Junior Tour & Masters will be sent for an all-expense paid one-week training program to the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain. The runners-up will be sent to an all-expense paid two-week training program to Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academies’ high performance center in Kochi.
The Masters was held from November 21-25 with knock out matches being played by the top 16 players in each category (U/12 and U/14 for both boys and girls). These top 16 players were identified basis the AITA points collected by them during the HCL Tennis Junior Tour held across four cities – Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow and Pune from August 29 to September 30.
The Winners and Runners-up of the HCL Tennis Junior Tour and Masters are as follows:
Category
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Boys
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Girls
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U/12 Singles Winner
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Akarsh Gaonkar (Karnataka)
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Rutuja Chaphalkar (Maharashtra)
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U/14 Singles Winner
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R.S. Rajesh Kannan (Tamil Nadu)
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P Sruthi (Tamil Nadu)
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U/12 Singles Runner-up
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Rahul Pamei (Manipur)
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Vaishnavi Adkar (Maharashtra)
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U/14 Singles Runner-up
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Yashraj Dalvi (Maharashtra)
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Mekhala Manna (West Bengal)
|
Speaking during the award distribution ceremony, Sundar Mahalingam, Chief Strategy Officer, HCL Corporation said, “Through the HCL Tennis Junior Tour, we reached out to talented young players across the country and the Masters was a culmination of our effort to provide these young exceptional players a platform to hone their skills in a competitive environment. Over the last five days of the HCL Tennis Junior Tour & Masters finale, we saw some high quality matches and I am impressed by the great talent on display.”
Mahesh Bhupathi, acclaimed tennis player and India’s first Grand Slam tournament winner said, “The HCL Tennis Junior Tour and Masters not only showcased the immense talent and potential that India’s young tennis players have but also displayed the fierce competitive spirit they bring to the matches! The platform gives precisely this passion more purpose and edge and helps to propel these young players to the next level of capability, endurance and ability to win. We are proud to have partnered with HCL to create this unique and much required platform for the sub-junior category.”
The four-city HCL Tennis Junior Tour was played under two categories – Singles and Doubles playoffs for U/12 and U/14, for both boys and girls. Over 1000 players participated in the tour across Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow and Pune. The Junior Tour was held under the aegis of AITA, helping the players gather precious ranking points through the tour.
About HCL
Founded in 1976 as one of India's original IT garage start-ups, HCL is a pioneer of modern computing with many firsts to its credit, including the introduction of the 8-bit microprocessor-based computer in 1978 well before its global peers. Today, the HCL enterprise has a presence across varied sectors that include technology, healthcare and talent management solutions and comprises four companies - HCL Infosystems, HCL Technologies, HCL Healthcare and HCL TalentCare. The enterprise generates annual revenues of over US $7 billion with more than 110,000 employees from 100 nationalities operating across 31 countries, including over 500 points of presence in India. For further information, visit www.hcl.com.