City tennis stars to court limelight in Hong Kong

Lucknow: At 7, when most children her age were still dabbling in toys and fairy tales,

Shambhavi Tiwari

held a tennis racket for the first time. The daughter of doctor parents,

Shambhavi

took up the sport during her summer vacations, never realising she was on her way to making history in a few years. Now, at 13, she is the first girl from Uttar Pradesh to represent her city, Lucknow, and state in the Under-14 event at the

Hong Kong Asian Junior Tour

(AJT), a professional tennis tournament governed by the

International Tennis Federation

and the

Asian Tennis Federation

. It's a double delight, in fact, for the City of Nawabs. Aryaman Mehta, 14, a student of

La Martiniere

, will also make his international debut alongside Shambhavi at the

Hong Kong AJT

, where they are being escorted by their coach

Prateek Tyagi

. Speaking to TOI, Tyagi said, "Shambhavi and Aryaman are both talented players. If we make it through the qualifiers, we stand a very good chance. This is also an important tour for the duo to pick up points for future international tours." For children who have turned professionals with under six years of training, tennis, it turns out, has not been a family sport in both their families. "Ours is a family of doctors and we never imagined Shambhavi would become so passionate about tennis. More than her father and I, she was encouraged in the sport by her maternal grandfather who egged her on to pursue tennis and excel in it," said Dr Kalpana Pandey, Shambhavi's mother.

Aryaman's mother,

Geetika

, an educational consultant, is equally excited about her son's debut on the international circuit. "Aryaman started playing squash with his father when he was young. In the absence of a formal training facility for squash, we enrolled him for tennis. Four years on, he's passionate about the sport. The school administration has been very supportive of Aryaman. Sadly, though, the state government has not provided any financial assistance, leaving it to the parents to bear the entire cost of travel and lodging for the children who participate"

On August 19 and 20, Shambhavi and Aryaman will participate in their qualifying matches for the tour. If they sail through, the main round will be played between August 22 and 27. While Shambhavi has won 23 all-India level tournaments, Aryaman was runner-up at the state-level event this year. Both said they're keen on playing professional tennis and want to be India's

gold

medal hope for Olympic events in the future.