French Tennis Federation (FFT), the organizer of The French Open (Roland-Garros) and All India Tennis Association (AITA) find the Indian winners of “Rendez-Vous à Roland-Garros, in Partnership with Longines”, a junior tournament offering wild cards for the 2015 French Open Junior Tournament in Paris. Held at Delhi Gymkhana Club from 1
st to 4
th April, the top 16 boys and girls gave their heart out to win the tickets to Paris. Rendez-Vous à Roland-Garros is a unique opportunity for Indian players to experience the atmosphere of a Grand Slam and to feel firsthand the unique sensation of playing on Paris’ red clay.
The winners of the national stage of the competition have earned tickets to Paris to compete against the other national champions from China and Brazil on May 24th. The playoff matches to win the wild cards for the French Open Junior tournament will be held on the Champ-de-Mars, right in front of the iconic Eiffel Tower. Shanghai, China has hosted the Rendez-Vous à Roland-Garros tournament in March and São Paulo, Brazil will follow in April.
Sathwika Sama & Basil Khuma showed great determination and battled hard for supremacy during final day of the tournament. Basil Khuma, aged 17 from Mizoram, ranked ITF #644 played his level best in the final to beat seeded #2 Alex Solanki (ITF #271). Khuma made his way through a win granting him a ticket to Paris without losing a set the whole week. He said a few minutes after his win “I thank my family for their support, this is the result of all the hard work I’ve put for this tournament. This will be my 3
rd time in Paris, and I can’t wait to be there – this tournament is going to give me a lot of confidence and experience. Most Importantly, I would like to thank Roland-Garros for such a great opportunity. I am now looking forward to going to Paris with an open mind to have fun, enjoy tennis and hopefully I’ll get the wild-card“
Congratulations to Title Winners! Under-18 male: Basil Khuma beat Alex Solanki 6/3 6/4 Under-18 female: Sathwika Sama beat Jennifer Luikham 6/3 6/4 
In the women’s draw, despite being one of the youngest (she is only 15) among other competitors Sathiwka Sama, ranked ITF #327 from Hyderabad, earned her ticket to the final playoff in Paris after an impressive tournament in which she beat both the top seeded players. In the final, Jennifer Luikham, ITF #271 was not able to resist to Sathiwka’s regularity and tennis science. Sathiwka had nevertheless a hard time closing the match with 7 match balls needed to wrap it up. An extremely excited Sathwika said on her victory “Rendez-Vous à Roland-Garros has been a very good tournament for me. I am really happy to beat the top two seeded players. I did not get tense at all after missing the first six match points, I stayed confident and focused on the next points. This is a moment of my lifetime! I’m so excited to go to Paris, I’m going to shop like crazy!”
Junior tennis talents in India dream of winning at Roland-Garros after their senior role model Ramesh Krishnan claimed his junior Grand Slam title in 1979. The host of a local tournament for wild cards into the main draw of the boys' and girls' championships of the French Open has now provided a path to realizing their dreams.
Coming of Champions Trophies For the first time, the French Open Champion Trophies were brought on Indian soil. The two trophies (Musketeers’ cup for men and Suzanne Lenglen’s cup for women) once in the hands of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Serena Williams have been displayed at various locations in Delhi in order to bring Roland-Garros’ tournament closer to the Indian fans and culture. The trophies were taken for photo shoot at Taj Mahal, a symbol of India worldwide, Red Fort, Qutub Minar, the Alliance Française and Delhi Lawn Tennis Association.
About Roland-Garros Both committed sports fans and the general public alike have come to love Roland-Garros. Some 462,384 spectators flocked to the highly prestigious French Open in 2014, and the tournament was also broadcast in 191 territories across the world, making it an event of truly global significance. Roland-Garros is run by the French Tennis Federation and held every year at the Porte d'Auteuil in Paris. It is the only Grand Slam to be played on clay – one of the oldest and most noble surfaces in the history of tennis
About All India Tennis Association All India Tennis Association is the National Federation for development and promotion of Indian Tennis. It has a very strong and tiered junior tournament & ranking structure and a sound professional tournament structure for Men & Women. AITA also has a sound coach’s education programme and is the only recognized nation in Asia to have the ITF Silver Certification.
Photo caption:
Sathwika Sama and Basil L Khuma, winners of Rendez-Vous a Roland-Garros under 18 female and male categories respectively.
Alex Solanki, runner up and Basil L Khuma, winner of under-18 male with Mr. Bharat Oza, Honorary Secretary General & Executive VP from AITA, Mr. Lucas Dubourg, International Development Manager- FFT and Manpreet Kandhari, Director, DLTA at the Prize Disribution Ceremony of Rendez-Vous a Roland-Garros. 
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