Srinagar Aug 21 (JKNS): The Yonex team won the Destination lawn tennis tournament that was played in Srinagar’s Gindun Tennis Courts here.
The team Yonex captained by Rajan Beri defeated team Slanzer captained by Inayat Jahangir by winning two straight sets.
The other members of the team Yonex were Abdul Rouf Bhat, Deepak Singh, Dilbagh Singh and Dr Narender Sing Yadav and the Slanzer members were Shambhu Kulthia, Dinesh Agarwal, Rakesh Raman and Arun Atrey.
With this the two-day tennis destination tournament concluded this evening with the organisers expressing hope that the event will open the way for bigger national and international tennis tournaments in Kashmir.
The final day saw players compete for the top honours after two days of matches featuring participants from Jammu and Kashmir and different parts of the country.
The tournament featured 40 players, including 15 from Jammu and Kashmir and 25 from outside the Union Territory. Several visiting players travelled with their families and are expected to stay in Kashmir for around a week, combining their participation in the tournament with a visit to the Valley.
Earlier at the inaugural ceremony, Nasir Aslam Wani, Advisor to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, said that strengthening sports infrastructure remained a priority with the Government working to improve facilities across Jammu and Kashmir.
Wani after inaugurating 2-day Tennis Tournament here in Srinagar said that the Chief Minister’s priority is to provide our children with proper sports facilities and infrastructure, not only at the district level but also at the tehsil level.
He said the Government was keen to promote tennis and provide young players from J&K opportunities to compete at national and international levels.
“We want tennis to become more popular so our children can showcase their talent at the national and international levels,” he said.
Kashmir’s destination tennis tournament today began at Gindun Stadium in Rajbagh, bringing together 40 players, including 25 from different States and 15 from J&K, for the two-day event.
The tournament has also drawn players travelling with their families, with several visitors planning to stay in the Valley for nearly a week, adding a tourism dimension to the sporting event.
Local tennis player and organizer, Abdul Rauf Bhat, said the tournament was intended to strengthen Kashmir’s tennis ecosystem by giving local players an opportunity to compete and interact with players from outside the region.
“I started playing in 2018, but an event of this scale is happening here for the first time. The idea was to bring players from outside Kashmir so local players could learn from them, and they could also learn from us,” he said.
Bhat said infrastructure remained a challenge as more players were taking up tennis.
He said players had sought an additional court and renovation of existing facilities and had been assured that the demands would be addressed.
He said visiting players had responded positively to Kashmir and expressed hope that such tournaments would become an annual feature, eventually paving the way for an ITF-level international event.
Another participant said the tournament reflected growing interest in tennis and improving facilities in the Valley.
However, he stressed the need for regular maintenance of the courts and permanent sheds for players to rest and store equipment.
The organisers said the event was conceived to combine tennis with tourism by bringing players and their families to Kashmir for several days.
They hoped it would become an annual fixture and provide a platform for larger domestic and international tournaments in the Valley. (JKNS)
