South Club desperate to rope in Natl Grass Court sponsor

Kolkata, Sep 7 (UNI) The National Grass Court Championships returns to its holy grail after six years, only this time round the South Club authorities are finding it tough to stitch together a sponsorship deal.

The National Grass Court Championship is one of the most prestigious domestic tournaments with some of the best names of tennis participating in the event as it is seen as the stepping stone to the next stage. This edition of the tournament will be held in South Club from December 17 to 22.

Talking to UNI, South club secretary I N Chaturvedi said today, ''A tournament like the national grasscourt is close to the heart of South Club authorities. It is here that it was born. But we have to raise around Rs 15 lakh and there are no real takers.'' ''With the Sunfeast Open happening here, all the major sponsors have focused on that tournament. So it is real tough to get a major sponsor. But if you see this is the tournament that throws up the players for the future and those who want to do something for tennis should be looking at these tournaments to built the champions of tomorrow,'' he said.

The South club is already looking all set for the tournament with seven grass courts with newly erected five columns of 6500 lux light posts. It has converted the remaining courts into two synthetic courts and two clay courts, becoming the only tennis club in the world to boast of all three types of international courts.

With the renewal of the 10 acres of land in place with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, they are also looking to raise a double storeyed club house keeping in sync with its heritage status.

''We had a yearly rent of Rs 5000, but that has been raised to Rs one lakh every year. We have paid Rs eight lakh in retrospect to the renewal given from 2000. The renewal is till 2020,'' he added.

''The South club is in good health, but when it comes to organizing major tournament we feel the pinch and often blow a hole in our pockets. The last Davis Cup ran us into loss. So we need some sponsor to be with us,'' he added.

The club is also looking to do a senior tournament and rope in an ATP tournament.

The Nationals this time could see the next-gen stars like Karan Rastogi in action. Though Prakash Amritraj may not play here, Rohan Bopanna still have an outside chance.

The inaugural grass court National Championship was held at the South Club -- the cradle of the game in the country' -- in 1946. The Big serving Sumant Misra became the first champion beating Man Mohan Lal. Till 1955 only three Indians, S Misra (1946,1952), Dilip Bose (1948) and Ramanathan Krishnan 16 years old (1953) won the championship).

The foreigners dominated the scene till 1976. The most important to bear the mantle were Roy Emerson (Australia) a Wimbledon and US Open Champion, and Ile Nastase World No one (1973).

India's Ramanathan Krishnan won the title a record number of eight times (1953-1964). Of the other eminent Indians Premjit Lal and Vijay Amritraj were champions three time each, while Jaidip Mukherjee and Ramesh Krishnan took the title twice each.

India had the honour of staging the first Asian International Championship here in 1949-1950. Dilip Bose emerged as the first Asian Champion.

He also has the distinction to be seeded at Wimbledon (15) in 1950. In 1954 the Young Ramanathan Krishnan became the first Asian to win the Junior Wimbledon Championship, 25 years later Ramesh Krishnan emulated his father in 1979. Leander Paes was the third Indian to grab the junior Wimbledon title in 1990.

In the 1990s the Paes and Sports organized the tournament four years on a trot before it moved onto other parts of the country.

UNI