Aaokhele (an NGO promoting sports & fitness) organized a social tennis doubles-only tournament for corporates in Gurgaon. The tournament was guided with the able hands of Sh. Suman Kapur (Hon’able Secretary, Haryana Tennis Association) and brought the tournament under the aegis of HTA.
By the grace of the support of sponsoring companies – Kriskindu (Infrastructure Support), Prince (Prize Sponsor), & Artemis (Health Sponsor) – and the support of the community with people bringing water, fruits & other refreshments, this Gurgaon get-together saw a spike in the participation of working executives from the corporate world.
A total of 27 teams participated in this doubles tournament with 22 in the men’s doubles draw and 5 in the mixed doubles. The enthusiasm was at its peak when it was not only the players but even their families cheering for them. We had a footfall of around 158 folks (kids, friends, families) who came to watch their folks play. Infact, the news of the tournament spread fast – as we had teams participating from Chandigard & Muzaffarnagar (UP) too.
The participating of the teams came from corporate world – Accenture, IBM, Oracle, PwC, eValueServe, DLF, Alcatel, Orange, to name a few, Defence Services (IAF, CRPF), government officials, and other businessmen. The players age varied from 22-56 but that was not to matter.
Surprisingly, no-one complained of the hectic schedule, the number of matches to be played… no-one fought on the line calls and noone went home after their matches. All were just there, cheering for one another. After the round-robin stages, all had their own favorites and they were cheering for them. Families came together, they sat in groups – cheering and singing. One of the players, Manish Aggarwal, an excellent guitarist rejuvenated the moods of everyone by making them sing on his tunes.
The weather was a plus too. The gentle cool breeze flew through the weekend giving a perfect weather to play tennis.
All this would not have been possible without the kind support from our sponsors.
Artemis – our health partner was kind to set up a health camp at the venue. They also supported the tourney with an ambulance taking care of the hurt and injured. Besides, they also did a health check-up for all (guests & players) that included BP, BMI, amongst other tests.
Kriskindu, an company setting examples in the field of sports infrastructure development sponsored the tennis courts to us. They had their teams that ensured that the tournament had courts that were perfectly measured in dimensions. They also guided us with their expertize to prepare and water the courts on time.
The tournament would not have come to close without our prize sponsors, Prince. Supporting the social cause, the grounds on which Prince has been built, they sponsored the winners with tennis bags of premium quality. We also had representation from them where their professional coaches guided the players to improve their skills.
Besides bringing the competitive spirit to fore, there was fun elements too. The biggest attraction amongst them was the speed-gun. There was a huge facination to measure the serve speeds and map them with the players on circuit. However, to everyone’s despair, they could not reach Andy Roddick’s speed. But a few did beat Sania Mirza. Manish Jain was the fastest with a serving speed of 160kmph.
The event concluded in the evening hours of Sunday with the players content with a wonderful weekend well spent. Anubhav Saksena (Ciena) thanked with a statement that filled our hearts,” It was an awesome weekend you guys made for us. When is the next tournament.” Dr. Kanjom (CRPF) also was kind with his words. He mentioned that the tournament was very well organized and that he will bring more his friends in the next edition.
This tournament was an endeavor of Aaokhele to organize some funds to help the needy. Aaokhele indends to sponsor the needful players who don’t have resources to themselves. Aaokhele also is focussed to provide education to the underpriviliged by going to villages and organizing camps for the poor.