Meanwhile, Shilpi Swarupa Das and Anaam Almas finished doubles runners-up in the AITA 50K Women’s Tournament, being held at Patliputra Tennis Centre in Patna from Oct 30. In the final, they lost to Bihar duo of Medhavi Singh and Aditi Shreya 4-6, 4-6. Earlier in the semifinals, Shilpi and Anaam beat Maharashtra-UP combination of Komal Nagare and Mariyam Khan 6-3, 6-3.

Both Shilpi and Anaam were of the opinion that they could have won the title had they got more time to practice at Kalinga Stadium. According to the duo, the State Sports Department has been keeping four of the 11 courts closed almost for a year. These four synthetic courts have kept closed for renovation from December 31, 2016.

Even after completion of the renovation work, the Department is not opening the courts for reasons best known to the authorities. According inside sources, defects have been found in the relaying of the four courts and the executive agency has been asked to rectify the faults. Players also smell corruption in the deal.

Of the remaining seven courts, five have been given to VIP veterans for recreation purpose and competitive players hardly get the opportunity to play there. The rest two courts have been rented to four coaches for training of youngsters on pay-and-play basis. Deprived of practice facility, many promising players have been forced to quit the sport. But the department authorities are not listening.
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TOP: Aditya Satpathy (R) receives the winner’s trophy in Lucknow on November 3, 2017.
RIGHT: Anaam Almas  (L) and Shilpi Swarupa Das with their runners-up trophies in Bhubaneswar on Nov 4, 2017.