Indian team leaves for World Deaf tennis championship

The Indian team for World Deaf Tennis Championship at the National Stadium in Delhi, on the eve of its departure for Greece, on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan

The Indian team had a rigorous training camp on the clay courts of the Dhyan Chand National Stadium, prior to its departure for the Deaf World Tennis Championship to be staged in Crete, Greece, from September 23 to October 7.

Chief coach Dr. Stalin Nagaraj was optimistic that the team would put up a good performance. He was happy that there would be a youth section this time, apart from the events for men and women.

There was some anxiety as the youth players did not get the visa, but the intervention of the External Affairs Ministry ensured a prompt and positive response from the Embassy.

The spearhead of the team, Prithvi Sekar, who has won a string of medals including the singles gold in 2019 in the World Deaf Championship, is in Bulgaria for the World Railways championship.

He will be competing in the World Railways Games along with the other Railways players, P.C. Vignesh, Nitin Kumar Sinha and Siddarth Ponnala. “I will be competing in the team event of the World Deaf championship”, said Prithvi from Bulgaria.

The first week of the World Deaf championship will feature individual events, singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.

Dhananjay Dubey will be the lone Indian men’s entry, till Prithvi joins the squad in Greece, for the team championship scheduled to be staged from October 1.

The Indian women’s team has Jafreen Shaik and Bhavani Kedia. The experienced Jafreen is expected to compete in all the three events during the individual championship.

Arshit and Sivaji Pilla are the two youth players who will try to assert their game in the World Championship.