Tennis legends to play in Kerala capital

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - The city will later this year witness tennis legends Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Guillermo Villas competing here in the ATP Champions Tour.

The four former Grand Slam champions have confirmed their participation in the Tour tournament which brings together some of the tennis greats in cities around the world.

The event, scheduled to be hosted here either in November or December, is being organising by Leander Sports.

Raj Mohan Pillai, member of the Tennis Committee of the Trivandrum Tennis Club (TTC), said the tennis legends are expected to participate thanks to the efforts of Leander Sports.

“We are making all effort to see that the Champions Tour is held here either in November or December. These four giants have confirmed their participation.”

“Depending on our efforts to raise money, we could even see other greats like Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras competing in the event,” said Pillai.

He said officials of Leander Sports were here last week and had given the green signal to the courts and the facilities.

“We have estimated a cost of Rs.4 crore to host the four-day event where these greats would play each other in a round robin league fixture,” said Pillai, who is the younger brother of the late ‘Biscuit King’ Rajan Pillai who died in Tihar Jail.

“Through sponsorships, we are confident of raising Rs.2 crore. The rest should come from the state government,” he said.

TTC is now burning the midnight oil to see that this mega event takes place because none of these greats have ever played in the country and it could give a boost to Kerala tourism.

“We are meeting the state government to come to our help because if we can hold this event, then TTC would be the venue of the tournament every year and it would boost Kerala tourism,” added Pillai, who was one of the live wires of the Britannia Amritraj Tennis programme, through which Leander Paes came up.