PUNE, Feb 22: The junior tennis players in Maharashtra will now have more to look forward to than just a few state ranking tournaments. For the first time in the state, a Masters tourney for juniors has been introduced by the state body Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA).The Hero Honda-MSLTA Masters Junior and will be played in the boys and girls under-10, 12, 14, 16, 18 age groups at the PYC Gymkhana courts from February 22 to 27. The top 16 players (as per the MSLTA's year end rankings) from each group will be eligible for the tournament. To make the event more attractive, four bonus MSLTA points, apart from the points earned while playing the tourney, will be awarded to the players who qualify and participate. The total prize money offered at the tournament would be Rs 30,000, according to Sunder Iyer, tournament director.The qualifiers listBoys U-18: 1. Kedar Shah 22 (Pune), Mandar Wakankar 18 (Pune), Abhijit Muzumdar 7 (Mum), Hrishikesh Mone 7(Pune), Nikhil Sarin 6 (Pune), Neil Mundra 5 (Pune), Karthik Gopalkrishnan (5), Devendra Kulkarni 3 (Nasik) Rewant Dutta (Mum), Pritviraj Ingle (Kol), Gaurav Patodia (Kol), Rohit Deshpande (Pune), Arpan Lakhani (Mum), Karan Gandhi (Nagar) WC, Jai Arora (Mum), Sujay Salvi (Aurangabad)Girls U-16: Kalpita Raje 16 (Mum), Ashlesha Lokhande 13 (Pune), Avanti Sulakhe 12 (Pune), Vrushali Gawhankar 12 (Pune), Priti Bhatia 8 (Pune), Shagun Thukral 5 (Pune), Nupur Desai (Pune), Naina Sethi (Aurnagabad), Neha Sethi (Aur), Avani Gokhale (Pune), Kalyani Thosar (Pune), Sonali Sanap 6 (Mum).
