BHUBANESWAR: Upcoming tennis stars from the state Debasis Sahoo and Sohini Sanjay Mohanty were felicitated by the Odisha Tennis Association while a new mobile app was launched during a function at the Kalinga Stadium on Wednesday.
Debasis who is currently the number one ranked player in the U-16 and U-18 categories in the state has shown huge promise and is a budding talent at the national level. The youngster is also the first player from Odisha to play the prestigious junior event of 'Road to Wimbledon Master Qualifying Tournament' in the U-14 Boys category in 2019. Debasis is currently preparing for Junior Davis Cup.
Sohini is also seeded number one in the U-14 girl's category in the state and seventh in India. Having slowly started making the journey into the big leagues like ITF, Sohini has the distinction of being the youngest player from Odisha to have won more than sixty titles.
Besides this, she stood third representing India in the U-11 Ten-Pro 2019 event at that Rafael Nadal Academy, Spain.
Sports and Youth Services, E & IT, Govt of Odisha Minister Tusarkanti Behera felicitated the two youngsters. Among others who were present were R Vineel Krishna (Secretary Sports), Asit Tripathy (President, Odisha Tennis Association (OTA), Satyajit Mohanty (Secretary OTA) and Sanjeeb Panda (Joint Secy, OTA).
The minister also launched a mobile application of the Odisha Tennis Academy at the event. The app will facilitate online registration of players for coaching, assignment of coaches, booking of the courts, issue of identity cards, etc to the players. Currently, five coaches are engaged in coaching more than one hundred young players at the Kalinga Stadium.
The new office of the Odisha Tennis Association was also inaugurated by the minister on this occasion.
The OTA president Asit expressed hope that the academy will produce players of national and international fame while the honorary Secretary Dr. Satyajit Mohanty outlined the future plan of the academy in promoting tennis in the state and thanked the sports department of the Odisha government for their support in running the academy.