RT Narayan memorial tennis from Monday

BENGALURU: The second edition of the RT Narayan memorial rolling trophy AITA U-16 National Series tennis tournament will commence at the KSLTA courts here from February 15.
The tournament is being held in memory of noted tennis patron RT Narayan, father of sandalwood actress Ramya. The tournament has attracted over 200 entries, including the qualifying rounds.The winner and runner-up will take home a cash award of Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively.
Top players among boys include Dhakshineshwar Suresh of Tamil Nadu, who is ranked No.3 in the country, Abhimanyu Vannem Reddy of Karnataka (No. 4), Megh Patel of Gujarat (No. 5), M Adithya Senthil Kumar of Tamil Nadu (No. 6) Rohit Krishna of AP (No. 7). The main Karnataka challengers in the fray are M Arjun, Kavan Kumar and Manish.
In the girls’ singles, Humera Shaikh of AP (No.7) heads the list along with Shivani Amineni of AP (No.9), Yubarani Banerjee of West Bengal (No. 12), Mubashira Anjum Shaikh of AP (No. 14) and Sanya Singh of Maharashtra. The top Karnataka players who will in action are Prathibha Prasad, Soanshe Bhatnagar, Pragathi Prasad Narayan, Parvvi Patil and Naisha Srivastav.
The qualifying rounds will be held on February 13 and 14. Eight players will qualify to form a 32-member main draw.
Addressing the media, Ramya said: “I hope this tournament will perpetuate the memory of my father who was extremely passionate about the game and worked tirelessly for its development in the state. It is wonderful that we now have the National Series in his honour on his home turf again.”
FINANCIAL BOOST
National junior champion BR Nikshep received a financial boost as Ramya presented him with a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh in appreciation of his achievements. The Surana College student, who made his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open last month, playing the junior boys’ singles qualifying rounds, is currently ranked No.1 in U-18 singles. His father K Ravi Kumar received the cheque on his behalf. Nikshep had received a similar grant from Ramya in 2013 to pursue his tennis career.