Date:14/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/14/stories/2008121460752000.htm

Sport - Tennis

Bhupathi scouting for talent in city

CHENNAI: The Apollo Tyres Mission 2018 has taken a quite a few significant strides in the last one year, and Mahesh Bhupathi, the chief architect of the project, is happy with the progress it has made.

“I am very pleased with the response. We’ve never had any system in place. With the mission, we hope to get the best talent from across the country,” said the owner of 10 Grand Slam doubles titles.

In Chennai to shortlist kids aged between six and 14 for his project, Bhupathi, along with his father C.G. Krishna Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna, observed the children, who had come in large numbers (around 600) for the two-day clinic that began at Madrasa-I-Azam School courts here on Saturday.

Bhupathi said the kids selected from Chennai would take part in the National selection to be held in Hyderabad on December 20 and 21.

Talking about the virtues of the project, Bhupathi said it laid emphasis on fitness.

“We have the best of support staff from Argentina and South Africa. The training is rigorous. I can say that the kids are definitely the fittest in the country and they are putting in a lot of effort,” he said.

The second batch of Mission 2018 chosen from the four regions — the other two cities are Chandigarh and Ahmedabad — of the country will be enrolled with the Foundation for Indian Sporting Talent Academy’s Tennis programme for world class training and development. — Principal Correspondent