Mumbai: Leander Paes, who is the mentor of the league and co-owner of the Mumbai Leon Army along with Shyam Patel is looking forward to mentoring young players in the upcoming Tennis Premier League, which will be held at the Celebration Sports Club, Andheri from December 12 to 15.
Speaking during a media interaction Leander said, “Indian sport is doing wonderfully well and leagues like IPL, ISL and the Kabaddi leage have helped nurture the future generation. My job in this league is to help the organisers to promote the league. I have played for 30 years and I want to give back to the sport by getting the top players of the country to come and play with the youngsters and take the sport forward.
“The men’s field has some of the top players of the country like Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, Saket Myneni, Purav Raja, Vishnu Vardhan while on the women’s side, Indian No 1 Ankita Raina, Pranjala Yedlapalli, Rutuja Bhosale and Riya Bhatia will be seen in action.
When speaking of the growth of the sport he added, “ It is a great time for tennis in India with Sumit Nagal playing against Federer or Ramkumar and Saket doing well in the international events but it is important that they stay consistent and condition themselves mentally. The mental fitness is as important as physical fitness, it is a very tough task as a lot of athletes are spending more than their earning but it’s our job to give them the right platform to excel.”
The total prize fund for the tournament is 60 lakhs and in order to make the tournament more inclusive and exciting, the organisers have U-14 Boys, U-18 Girls and Wheelchair categories.
