Wimbledon calling for Indian kids

Every tennis player dreams of playing on the lush green grass of Wimbledon but never did Adil Kalyanpur, Siddhant Banthia, Shivani S. Ingle and Aarja Chakraborthy think that their wish would be fulfilled so soon. These four youngsters are the winners of the HSBC The Road to Wimbledon under-14 competition, held at the RK Khanna Stadium in the capital last week. Play offs were conducted in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh that saw the participation of more than 150 children. From the play offs, the top 16 boys and girls were selected who further competed against each other to reach the finals. 'I am feeling good as I worked hard in the past few months. I feel that I deserve to be here,' said the smiling and excited Kalyanpur. The fantastic four of India will play in the UK HSBC National Finals at Wimbledon from August 11 to 16. They are confident that they will perform well against other overseas players. 'I have faced international players when I represented India in the nationals at Vietnam last month. There is not much difference just that they are mentally stronger than us,' said Ingle, who was the top seed here. 'It will be difficult against unknown players, but if I work hard, play my best and give it all I have, I'll have a pretty good chance,' said Kalyanpur. 'It's all about fitness and strength when you are against international players. I know my weaknesses and will work hard to improve on them,' said Siddhant Banthia. Former Davis Cupper Paul Hutchins is the tournament director and is expanding the reach of Wimbledon to India. 'Wimbledon is huge and with it, we want to help India to develop and flourish tennis from the grass root level,' said Hutchins The former captain of the Great Britain tennis team also said that the All India Tennis Association must use the Davis Cup draw against Serbia to promote the sport in India. 'A win against Serbia is very good but this occasion must be used to promote the sport and get more and more people to watch.' Hutchins is planning to conduct five tournaments next year in four to five different cities for juniors in the country.