Indian juniors set to leave for Road to Wimbledon

THE JUNIOR TENNIS PLAYER will aim to repeat last year's good performance as they leave tomorrow to compete in England's national grass court tournament, where India bagged two titles in 2014. 

Sacchitt Sharma and Shashank Theertha will compete in the boys competition while Mahak Jain and Prinkle Singh will vie for top honours in the girls event, to be held from August 10-15. 

All the four players had qualified for prestigious tournament after ending finalists at the 2015 Road to Wimbledon Qualifiers. 

Mahak and Prinkle are in Czech Republic for the ITF World Junior Tennis Finals and will reach London directly from there. 

The boys will leave along with girls coach Ankita Bhambri while boys coach Vishal Uppal will join the Indian contingent from the USA, according to an AITA press release. 

"Our players are good fighters. I have seen them play and also travelled with them. We will pose a good fight. AITA is doing the smart thing by sending the kids little early, so that they can get acclimatised to the grass court conditions. The girls have no option but to adapt fast from clay courts in Czech Republic to grass courts at AELTA," Anikta said. 

"It will be a huge incentive and exposure for the Indian players to play at Wimbledon. They will know that they have to keep working hard if they have to come back and play there again," she added. 

Last year India's Siddhant Banthia became the singles champion after defeating top seed Maxime Trenakhin. 

Siddhant and Adil Kalyanpur had also claimed the doubles title while Indian girls Aarja Chakraborty and Shivani Ingle had ended runners-up in the girls' doubles. 

The agreement between the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and the Wimbledon Foundation for the 'Road to Wimbledon' programme runs till 2017.