ITPA announces `fund raising` event

New Delhi: The Indian Tennis Players Association (ITPA) on Friay announced organisation of a two-day `fund-raising` tournament, which will feature top stars such as Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Somdev Devvarman.

Rohan Bopanna, Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan will also be part of the `fun` event, to be hosted by Khar Gymkhana in Mumbai on December 21-22. ITPA was formed early this year to address concerns of the Indian tennis players. 12 Amteurs will bid to form a team with the one of the six players. They will be divided into two groups of three teams each to play in a round-robin format, each match being an 8 game pro set with a tie breaker, if the game is tied at 7-7. The teams will play 4 matches back-to-back to earn a spot in the semi-finals to be played the following morning, which will decide the two teams who will face off against each other in the finals on Sunday evening. A pro-am match, featuring Sania Mirza will also be part of the event. Talking about the initiative, ITPA Secretary Karti Chidambaram said, "A major part of ITPA`s mission is to popularise the sport by connecting the communities to the legends. This being our first tournament has some of India`s best tennis talent displaying their prowess on court in a fun and quick style of tennis. We are grateful for the support, both in monetary and logistic terms extended by the team at Khar Gymkhana, that made this tournament happen and hope that this will be the first of many fundraising activities. " Somdev said, "We are glad we have our first event on the road. It is always a pleasure to be playing in front of the home crowd and this will certainly be no exception, given that this is the first time that all of us would be playing under one roof at home. Considering the structure and the format of ITPA Doubles Masters, I believe and hope that a lot of people turn up to cheer us at the event."