‘Rendezvous a Roland Garros’, an initiative to put talented players on the path to a French Open junior wild card, was given a robust start with the 1979 French Open junior champion, Ramesh Krishnan, inspiring the players at an impressive function here on Tuesday.
The event, featuring the top 16 juniors of the country in the boys’ and girls’ sections, who may not get a direct entry into the French Open junior event with their international rank, will be played at the Gymkhana Club here from April 1 to 4.
The champions of the Indian leg will fly to Paris to compete with the champions from China and Brazil. The eventual champions in Paris will be awarded the French Open junior wild card.
The 53-year-old Ramesh recalled playing the boys’ final on the centre court in Paris in 1979, after the men’s final between Bjorn Borg and Victor Pecci. Asked about tennis making an impact in the country despite cricket enjoying a dominant place, Ramesh said it was unfair to compare tennis with cricket and opined that tennis needed to be popularised in the heartland more than the cities, for better growth.
Welcoming the French initiative, All India Tennis Association (AITA) president Anil Khanna remembered how India had mastered clay and how Ramesh himself was the architect of the Indian Davis Cup win in 1993 in Frejus.
Khanna said a study by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) had predicted 6.6 million tennis players in India, and that it would be second only to the US. Khanna signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the French Tennis Federation for junior tennis, coaches’ education, etc.
Expressing “deep gratitude” to Anil Khanna, French Federation vice-president Jean Pierre Dartevelle declared that it was just the beginning of a long series of initiatives between the two countries.
