In a letter from the Executive Director of the Asian Tennis Federation, Manpreet Kandhari, to the Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand, British International School Phuket (BISP) Year 9 student Kunanan (Puthi) has been invited to join the 14 & under Team who will be travelling for a series of tournaments in Europe from 30th June.
The Grand Slam Player Development Programme (GSPDP), the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) have invited Phuti to GSPDP/ITF/ATF 14&U Team to Europe 2022 from 30th June. This project is being financed by the GSPDP and administered by the ITF Development Department. The ATF will pay for the player’s airline tickets to the first venue and back to their home base.
Puthi will be part of a team of 6 boys and 6 girls along with 3 coaches that will travel extensively for a duration of nearly 5 weeks and will play 4 weeks of tournaments, with a camp in Paris, France. The touring team will kick start the journey in the first week of July and carry on their journey through France, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium until the 2nd week of August. Players were selected based on their performance in the ITF World Junior Tennis competition in April or based on the ATF 14 & under rankings.
When asked about how he was feeling about the opportunity to play in Europe, Puthi said,
“I am feeling both nervous and excited about playing on a clay court for the first time, but I am happy about being selected to be part of the GSPDP/ITF/ATF 14&U Team and looking forward to the summer tour.”
During the tour players must compete in all tournaments in which they are entered according to the tour details below:
- 1-3 July Training Camp, Paris, France
- 4-10 July OPEN STADE FRANCAIS, Coquette, France
- 11-17 July La Balle Mimosa Loire-Atlantique La Baule- Escoublac, France
- 18-24 July TOURNOI LOIRE VALLEE, Blois, France
- 25-30 July Internationale Deutsche Tennismeisterschaften U14 Duren, Germany
- 1-7 August Young Champions Cup, Hasselt, Belgium
BISP Tennis Academy Director, Coach Gill Lemore shared that it is an honour to have a BISP player be selected to attend such an enriching opportunity. Having students gain international experience is not only a boost to their confidence but enables them to challenge themselves against some of the best players in their age group.
“Puthi has been training hard in preparation for all his matches this year. He has been working on his strength and conditioning ; starting to use weights and has been working on his technique to get more paces and compete with older, more powerful players. He has developed a strong commitment and positive attitude towards achieving his goals and we can see it paying off with this kind of recognition. Playing on clay will be a new experience for Puthi , he will discover how to play on clay using slides, and tactics are very different from those used on a hard court and I am keen for him to gain this exposure.” – BISP Tennis Academy Director, Coach Gill Lemore
BISP is grateful to be able to be part of this unique opportunity for junior development and wish to extend thanks and appreciation to the ATF, ITF, and the GSPDP for making it possible through their continued funding and support of their player development programmes.
