All Nepal Lawn Tennis Association is hosting the ANLTA-Asian Junior Ranking Tour U-14 Tournament, the first-ever international event in Kathmandu this month.

The ANLTA is organising the tournament’s Circuit-1 event from September 5-9, while the Circuit- 2 tournament is slated for September 12-16. A total of 32 players from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong will participate in both the events, informed tournament director Ajay Bista. Out of the six courts at the Tennis Complex in Lalitpur, four will be used for tournament, while two courts have been set aside for training. Nepal became eligible to host international tournaments after adding two courts to the previous four at the complex three years ago.

“As per the rules, we need at least six courts to host international tournaments. We got the rights to host this tournament and we have taken it as the ice-breaking international event in Nepal,” said ANLTA President Jyoti Rana. Rana also said the ANLTA had applied to host ITF U-18 Tournament in February next year. Hopefully we will get the hosting rights of the tournament as well,” she added. The organisers have estimated Rs 1.05 million to host the tournament. “We have requested the National Sports Council to provide financial assistance. We also have some sponsors and ANLTA Member Keshav Pandey has promised advertisement banners worth Rs 150,000 apart from Rs 200,000 from his personal account,” informed Rana, who is also the Vice-president of Nepal Olympic Committee.

Meanwhile, the ANLTA organised the Workshop On Tennis Officiating Course for Chair Umpires from today. A total of 30 umpires are taking part in the two-day workshop conducted by ITF representative Pravin Kumar Nayak.