AITA U-18 Tennis Championship returns to Jamshedpur after decade

Disappointing outing for Jharkhand boys, Top seeds enter second round

Jamshedpur, Nov 8: Tata Steel AITA U-18 Tennis Championship Series 2021 kicked off today at the JRD Tata Sports Complex.

The national ranking junior tennis championship is held in Jamshedpur after a gap of almost a decade. The championship will be played at newly constructed deco turf tennis courts. The championship will conclude on November 12, 2021.

R N Murthy, Managing Director, The Tinplate Company of India Limited, and the chief guest of the occasion, formally inaugurated the tourney (a National Ranking Tennis Tournament) in the presence of Team Sports, Participants and their parents. 

Murthy said, “Tata Steel has a legacy to promote sports starting from participation in Olympics.  I am very glad that Tennis is back in Jamshedpur. Look forward to excellent matches all through the tournament.”

It was easy outing for the seeded players on day 1 of the boys singles main draw as the top seed Shagnik Bose got walk over and advanced to the second round. Seeded 2 Keshav Goel, Seeded 4 Tamoghna Das, Harsh Chitlangia, seeded 3 Shivam Khanna, Seeded 6 Lee Ethan Thai Shing and 8th seeded Ankur Chirimar from West Bengal advanced to second round. Seventh seeded Shubhro Kanti Ganguli of Uttar Pradesh also got walk over.

Jharkhand’s Siddharth Verma lost to Md Adil of West Bengal 6-0,6-0. Another Jharkhand boy Vinayak Agiwal was defeated in straight sets (6-0, 6-0) by Aditya Mohapatra  of Odisha.

Subhrodeep Bhattacharya of Jharkhand also lost to Sahil Kumar of Odisha 6-1,6-0.       

The championship has two event categories: Singles and Doubles, for boys and girls. The 5-day tennis championship is being organised by Tata Steel in association with Jharkhand Tennis Association under the guidelines of AITA. All COVID-19 related safety guidelines and protocols have been ensured.

The top 2 seeds of Boys Singles Under 18, Shagnik Bose and Keshav Goel are from the neighbouring state of West Bengal. The Girls Singles Under 18 category also reflects a similar picture where the top 2 seeds, namely Sumeira Jaiswal and Rituja Saha are also from West Bengal. Along with some of the top ranked players from different parts of the country. Six Jharkhand players Subhrodeep Bhattacharya, Vinayak Agiwal & Siddharth Verma in the Boys section whereas Anshika Raj, Swati Verma and Aditi Saha in the Girls are part of the main draw.

Matches will be held throughout the day and will start at 8:30 am tomorrow.