Viswajeet Khanna, IAS (Retd.)
President, CLTA &
Chairman,
Punjab State Electricity Regulatory
Commission, Govt. of Punjab
I introduce to you the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA) which I am privileged to head as its elected President. CLTA is affiliated with All India Tennis Association and is running one of India’s most successful Junior Development Programme in its campus at the Tennis Stadium in Sector-10 Chandigarh for 400 boys and girls in the age group of 5 to 18 years.
CLTA has 10 synthetic courts; 2- Clay courts; 4- Mini Tennis Courts; and a Wall Practice Court; Gym; Physiotherapy-cum-sports injuries clinic; Hostel for Boys and Girls. CLTA also runs a High Performance Programme in the morning under CLTA’s expert coaches lead by Mr. Y. Romen Singh, ITF leverl-2, Chief Coach, CLTA.
Mr. Marco Seruca, Director Technical, CLTA, a former Davis Cup and ATP Player from Portugal, is running a High Performance Centre of International Standards for Boys and Girls from 9:00 to 11:00 A.M. in the morning and 7:00 to 9:00 P.M. in the evening.
CLTA’s tennis complex is appropriately located next to a 300 acre green park called Chandigarh Leisure Valley with a backdrop of the Shivalik Hills in the Himalaya ranges. The city is beautiful, pollution free and well connected by road, rail and air with India’s capital city of New Delhi which is about 250 kilometers towards the South east.
CLTA has the distinction of having built national tennis champions from among its trainees in all age groups, including the seniors. Our flagship project is the Chandigarh Academy for Rural Tennis (CHART), a residential programme for children hailing from rural areas in the region which includes Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. These children, all belonging to low income families, are carefully selected on the basis of sporting talent and potential. CLTA looks after all their needs such as schooling, board and lodging, and specialized training in the game.
CLTA has conducted all major tennis tournaments in India, which include events in the circuit of International Tennis Federation and three Davis Cup Ties, India v/s Japan, India v/s Australia and India v/s New Zealand. We have also been hosting top events for juniors as well as senior professionals every year regularly for the past three decades. Among the players from CLTA who reached the international level are Sunil Kumar Sipaeya, Sanam Singh, Vijyant Malik and Digvijay Pratap Singh all of whom were members of India’s Davis Cup tennis team at different times.
(Viswajeet Khanna)