The Saturday Club pioneered the first Kolkata Tennis League which was held at the Saturday Club tennis courts from 4^th-15^th March 2017.  The brain-child of Mr. Sanjay Jalan, it attracted unprecedented enthusiasm and response from the sports fraternity of the city.  Considering this was the first year for the tournament there were 27 teams on board, with 180 players and if one took the tournament officials into consideration, the League involved 245 people in all, which was an amazing response for a first time event.

Mr. Jalan brims with excitement when he talks about his creation; he says he wanted to create a new environment in the city, with a different buzz.  The objective was to get together people from different walks of life at a common platform and ensure that all teams players got to play at least 70% of the time, irrespective of whether they win or lose, which was a deviation from earlier formats where interest would be lost once a team lost their match and were effectively out of the tournament.  Towards this end, the organizers opted for the league system, where teams would play against each other and the total number of wins would be calculated to decide which teams would go into the quarter finals, much like the IPL.  For 10 days, the enthusiasm of the matches and the competitive spirit created a carnival atmosphere.  Adding to the fanfare were large hoardings of famous international tennis players adorning the court-side and the garden.  A special treat was a large hoarding of our own Kolkata girl, Shivika Burman, taking pride of place in the lawns.

Kolkata Tennis League also had many other new initiatives, the most unique one being that the Standard Chartered Bank sponsored the All-girls team which added colour and glamour to the tennis courts.  The official coach for the team was Shivika Burman who spearheaded the challenge while the girls, a motley group from different age-groups, rubbed shoulders with each other to keep the team flag flying high. Aarbur presented all the ladies with beautiful jute bags while Standard Chartered gifted all their players duffle-bags.  As souvenirs, they also presented hand towels and Sports Jam gave discount coupons to all the players of the tournament.

Amongst the other initiatives of the KTL were the hosting of a CRPF team, a Police team and an IIT team which put up a match-winning tennis team, breaking the myth that IITians are only about academics.  The IIT team was sponsored by Elastic Jobs, the owner being an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur.

The winner of the gold plate was the Veeline A team, the winner of the silver was the SportsJam team and the winner of the bronze plate was the Adeline team.

The event was such a success that even 3 days of play getting washed out due to the rain, couldn’t dampen the spirit of the participants.  In fact, dates for the tournament next year are already being chalked out and 17 teams have already committed to participating again next year.

Hurrah for all tennis lovers – players and fans alike.

The Saturday Club pioneered the first Kolkata Tennis League which was held at the Saturday Club tennis courts from 4^th-15^th March 2017.  The brain-child of Mr. Sanjay Jalan, it attracted unprecedented enthusiasm and response from the sports fraternity of the city.  Considering this was the first