Another year sets on us here at ITL, and we await the sunrise of the next.
2018 was a bit rocky for us in the beginning, as we went through a change in partnership and had to regain and find our footing. Thankfully, it didn’t take long before we were on our way to making some significant improvements and additions to our league.
UTR
We started holding UTR powered tournaments, the first and still only league in India to do so, for juniors. Universal Tennis Rating is a rating system for tennis players developed by a U.S based company out of California, of the same name. Various world class tennis academies, clubs, events and organizations use it to rate their players, it is also used as a ranking system in tournaments.
UTR is calculated by scores from the following events:
- UTR Powered Events
- ATP Tour and WTA Tour
- ITF Pro Circuit, Junior Circuit (U18) and Seniors
- US College tournaments
- USTA Junior Tournaments
- Tennis Europe Junior Tour
…and many more worldwide. To understand more about UTR watch the video below.
FOCUS ON FITNESS
ITL continued conducting various fitness workshops in Hyderabad, and introduced digital collaboration between us and some European coaches. Drills that focused on bio-mechanics, power generation, core strengthening and more were shared with all those that attended.
These workshops will continue in the future. Watch our website for updates on it.
ITF JUNIOR WILDCARDS
We also started a program where players looking to play international Junior ITF tournaments could ask us to represent them and request wild cards. We managed to get a wild card for a Grade 2 tournament in Hungary and one for a Grade 5 in Luxembourg. Both players were not ranked in the ITF when they received these wild cards.
Apart from the above, ITL was granted wild cards in almost 4 other Junior ITF tournaments outside India through our networking efforts.
If you would like wild cards for an ITF Junior tournament in any part of the world let us help you. So far we have a 100% success rate.
ITL HYDERABAD OPEN
We also conducted an Open tournament in November, which was well received and had prize money of almost Rs. 30,000 given out to the players. Tennishub.in, India’s leading online tennis store, was one of our sponsors for the event.
GRAND FINALE
Our year ended with a ceremony conducted at the Sancta Maria International School.
The Chief Guest was Mr. S. M. Arif, former Chief Badminton Coach for India 1997 – 2004, Padma Shri and Dronacharya Award recipient from the Government of India. We presented the ITL Masters tournament winners and the 2018 year end Top 3 with their trophies, cash prizes and achievement certificates.
For the first time players from Bangalore were part of the Top 3 rankings. We couldn’t be happier and delighted for their success!
The ceremony was highlighted by a speech from Mr. S. M. Arif that left a lasting impact on myself, and I’m sure all those attending. The video is below for you to see.
Special thanks to Mr. Mahender Reddy, Group Director of St. Mary’s Educational Society for supporting the efforts of ITL to help talent nurture and grow in the city and state.
2019 and Beyond
The Player Development program will be our main focus in 2019, and forward.
It will be providing players resources and plans that they can implement in their daily, weekly or on a goal based basis. We hope it will kick start the road for a lot of you to a successful junior tennis career, and who knows maybe even allow you to go pro?!
Also, Europe Camp…yes, we’re going to Europe in 2019! Details on that coming soon.
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A special note of thanks to all the parents who take time out on their weekends to be with us at tournaments. ITL recognizes the effort you put in and we hope the smiles and enthusiasm your children have when they compete with us make up for it.
Until next time, ITL wishes you a Safe, Happy & Ace New Year!
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Hyder Jaffari
CEO, India Tennis League