Tennis enthusiasts usually busy with their corporate jobs got a chance to pull out their racquets from storage cupboards. Aces and smashes from the corporate sector are on full swing at the Bulldog Tennis Academy, Kanakapura Road with the ongoing Inter Corporate Tennis Championship (ICTC) 2011.
The month-long tennis tournament, which started on November 5th, is probably the first and the only one of its kind in the country that offers players from the corporate sector an opportunity to compete at different play levels. Says Ronnie Sehgal, founder of Bulldog Tennis Academy that is conducting the tournament, "the goal is to promote tennis, fitness and a healthy lifestyle among corporate professionals." Bulldog Tennis Academy has been evangelising competitive adult tennis. They conduct weekend leagues and internal member tournaments for clubs and corporates.
Smash the ace. Pic courtesy: Ronnie Sehgal
The first ICTC in 2010 was a huge success with teams from 34 corporates, playing 4 weeks of high intensity tennis tournaments at the Bulldog Tennis Academy tournament centre. Their enthusiastic response ensured it is now running its second course this year too.
The ICTC 2011 format is designed to test the competitive level of teams as well as individuals. In the team event, it will be two singles and one doubles tie and open to both men and women. The individual event is a singles knockout draw. The tournament is open to all corporate houses, institutions and clubs, with a restriction of three teams per organization for the team event and eight individual entries for the singles event.
In the team event, 20 teams have been divided into 4 groups, playing roundrobin. The top 2 teams from each group make it to the quarter finals. Infosys, IISc, Bowring Institute, Metropolitan Club, Invensys, Stumpp Schuele & somappa etc have been some of the teams that won at the league level.
The finals will be held on Dec 4th, followed by a dinner event where the awards will be distributed. The total prize money is worth over Rs 50,000.
Sponsors include String Mechanic, Aqua Sure, BSNL, Silk Mark, TechniFibre, Grasim Cements, Flamenco Tech, TGI Fridays, Indus Steel, GC Global. Citizen Matters is the media partner for ICTC 2011.⊕