Record 502 entries for junior national championship

Chennai, Aug 20 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh's Sumit Prakash Gupta and Swetha Kumari of Delhi in the Under-18 singles and Gujarat's Samip Mehta and M Divija of Andhra Pradesh in the Under-14 have been given the top seeding in the Adidas- MCC national junior hard court tennis championships to be held here from tomorow to August 26.

Addressing a press conference here, organsing secetary Deepak Subrahmanyam and Chief Referee P Narasimhan said a record number of 502 entries have been received this year with Adidas sponsoring this talent spotting event in AITA calendar, for the second year in succession.

''We will sponsor the championship atleast for three more years'', Adidas India Brand Manager Sriram Dhani said, adding ''we expect a future national champion to emerge from this event.'' The entries for Boys Under -18 include 194, Boys Under-14 125, Girls Under-18 120 and Girls Under-14 85 entries.

In the Under-18 singles, Aroon Khatter (Mah), Monal Chilar(Del), Yash Bhargava (MP) and Irfana Hussain (TN), Tara Iyer (Del), Shalini Sahoo(Del), Sharan Paul (TN) and C Rajeshwari(TN) have been given wild card entry.

In the Under-14 singles, Siddhant Dekha (Assam), T Vishwaji (TN), H M Yunus (TN), N Sharath(TN), A Pooja (Del), R Bhavana (TN), Sanjana Manojkumar (TN) and Sanchita Nandakumar(TN) will be the wild card entrants to the main draw.

UNI VV PM HT1320