Kathmandu, April 27

IME Foundation is all set to organise the first IME JTI Grand Junior Open Lawn Tennis Tournament here from May 20-26.

The tournament will feature U-8, U-9, U-10, U-12 and U-14 events in boys’ and girls’ categories, informed IME Foundation Member Raju Poudel at a press meet today. The matches will be held at Naulin Sports Villa and Mandikhatar Tennis Club.

The top two players in U-14 categories will get air tickets to Bangkok worth Rs 36,000 and Rs 18,000 respectively, while top two in U-12 sections will receive air ticket to New Delhi worth Rs 20,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively. “We wanted to give something useful for the winners and motivate them to play further,” said Tournament Coordinator Krishna Raj Ghale. “So we decided to give air tickets as players need to travel frequently in junior events.”

Similarly, winners and runners-up of U-8, U-9 and U-10 categories will JTI training for a year equivalent to Rs 12,000 and six months equivalent to Rs 6,000 respectively. Players finishing third in all categories will receive four tickets each of Chandragiri cable car. The estimated budget of the tournament is Rs 354,000.

All Nepal Lawn Tennis Manohar Das Mool said the tournament would be helpful for the development of the game from junior level. “The tournament is a good initiative for the development of tennis in the country as the junior players are the backbone of any sport and these players will compete in national and open tournaments in future,” said Mool.

Meanwhile, IME Limited signed boxer Manohar Basnet as the brand ambassador for a year. IME Foundation Member Paudel, who is also Public Relations Manager of IME Group, and boxer Basnet exchanged the memorandum of understanding at the same programme. As per the agreement, IME Limited would provide Basnet with Rs 80,000, while the latter would use IME logo in gears in national and international events. “Although this is a commercial deal, boxer Basnet can use our logo as per his convenience,” added Paudel.