BENGALURU: From blindolded conversation under the trees to poetry slams, Cubbon Park was home to some of the widely attended and unconventional event this year.
As the year comes to an end, the city’s favourite lush landscape shall host another exciting event – a wheelchair tennis tournament. Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tour (IWTT) will be launching the All India Tennis Association(AITA) approved Tabebuia Open, a wheelchair tennis contest in the city. The tournament will be held from December 2 to 4 at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA), Cubbon Park.
The competition will brings together some of the best wheelchair tennis athletes in the country. The special tournament gets its name from the Tabebuia, a vibrant flower that blooms across the city of Bengaluru during winter.
Sunil Jain, the founder trustee of IWTT, had been looking forward to this tournament since 4-6years. In 2010, he saw wheelChair tennis for the first time which inspired him to make this contest possible. “We plan to take this across India,” he says. Gopinath K will be participating in the tournament. When asked to express what he feels about the tournament, he says, “Every individual has been participating under the name of a banner or an association.
This is the right time for Sunil and team to come up with such a contest. We don’t want sympathy. We just need opportunities.” PThe total cost of the tournament is `15lakhs. Rohan Bopanna, US Open Runner-Up, 2010 and Davis Cup member, India, says, “There is no difference between wheelchair tennis and normal tennis.”