Champions Tennis League Season 2 comes to Hyd

Vijay Amritraj, Indian tennis legend and global ambassador of the sport, recently announced Season 2 of the Champions Tennis League. The much awaited announcement saw the unveiling of new players, new teams and a new season of excitement heralding some quality tennis in our very own back yard. Speaking exclusively to City Tab, Vijay Amritraj elaborates further on the league.

How is CTL 2015 different from 2014?

Notable changes are, first of all we are going from 10 days to 14 days that will make a big difference as far as one match a day is concerned which is going to be very valuable to us because last year we played two matches a day and that will make a big difference. Secondly, we have also shortened the duration of each set, the tie-breaker will be at 4-all, so the matches will be shorter because last year everything was so competitive the matches went much longer than we thought.

What are the unique additions we will get to see this CTL?

More local and domestic promotions reach in the city to encourage the kids to play tennis, want juniors to be more involved and to have that kind of support to meet at the local city because we are also going to some second tier city this time, Nagpur and Raipur and so we are quite excited.

Focusing just Hyderabad, what special arrangements have been made in Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium for the CTL?

Stadium has been redone nicely already, they played Fed cup there, the atmosphere last year was terrific, and it’s a terrific stadium to play a match. We hope to have some pre-match activities before the matches that will be announced as and when it gets confirmed.

Can you please share with us the team lineup for Hyderabad Aces this year?

There is Thomas Johansson from Sweden, Ivo Karlovic from Croatia, Martina Hingis from Switzerland amd Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan from India.

Which is the local player for Hyderabad?

Each team has one boy and one girl according to all India tennis Association Ranking.

Anything you will like to say to the viewers & tennis-fans of Hyderabad?

The important thing for Hyderabad is it’s become a wonderful center for tennis; the Fed cup was played there. The association does a remarkable job. Government of Telangana does huge promotion for both the state as well as sports.

It’s a great opportunity to showcase what Hyderabad is all about-the state as well as the culture and also expose it to the rest of the world because we are going to be seen on television in lot of countries around the world. It will be a great competitive event, Hyderabad will obviously have a strong team and it will be interesting to see how the home crowd can make a difference for the home team.