Road to Wimbledon 2015 qualifiers from Jan 12

IANS
It is a wonderful opportunity for boys and girls

New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS)

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) announced a four-leg qualifying tournament followed by a Masters tournament to select two boys and two girls from the country to feature in the prestigious Road to Wimbledon (RTW) 2015, which is scheduled to be held in August at the All England Club. From the four qualifying events, the AITA will be able to put forth 16 of the best individuals from the country for the Masters to start from April 6. The finalists of the Masters tournament will qualify for the British national grass court tournament, according to an AITA release.

Kolkata would be hosting the qualifying events starting January 12, while the second leg would be held at Chandigarh from January 19. Delhi will have its qualifying event from February 2, whereas the final qualifier would be held in Mumbai from February 9.

While the Kolkata and Chandigarh matches would be played on grass courts, the competitions in Delhi and Mumbai would be played on hard courts.

"Each player would be awarded points on the basis of their singles performances and their three best performances will be considered for selection to the Masters (Finals)," the release said.

The players can procure national ranking points as all the qualifying events will be marked as AITA National Series events.

Last year it was India's Sidhant Banthia who claimed the title of the singles champion by defeating top seed Maxime Trenakhin.

Siddhant and Adil Kalyanpur had also won the doubles title. However, Aarja chakraborty and Shivani Inge finished second in the girls doubles competition.