Apollo Tyres Mission 2018 Scholarships Announced

Apollo has announced that 15 new tennis-playing youngsters will join the 21 children selected last year at the FIST Academy in Bangalore, taking the total number of Apollo Tyres tennis scholarships to 36. Mission 2018 represents the tyre manufacturer’s financial commitment to helping India gain a Grand Slam winner by the titular year.

Speaking on behalf of Apollo Tyres, Avik Chattopadhyay, head of Corporate Marketing and project leader for Apollo Tyres Mission 2018 said, “It’s been an amazing journey this year. We had six, seven and eight year olds participating in the selection camps from across the country. We also had participation from an NRI from Tanzania and few of them coming all the way from places like Imphal and Jorhat. This batch will further enrich the programme and Mission 2018’s prospect of bringing Grand Slam glory to India.” He added, “We have selected this time a tiny six-year-old girl from Ahmedabad who first picked up a tennis racquet when she was a little over one year old! This clearly shows the kind of passion for sport we have in India.”

India’s tennis ace and Apollo’s partner in Mission 2018, Mahesh Bhupathi, the managing director of Globosport added, “This time the selection process has been even more difficult. But we are very happy with the kind of children we have picked this year, where there are a few children who have already been making a mark in the under-12 and under-14 tournaments. From last year’s batch we can see the difference that can be made if there is a team dedicated to talented children and their tennis needs; this ensures that their progress is much better.”

Amongst those who made it to the elite 15, the youngest are 6-year-old Priyanshi Bhandari of Delhi
Pubic School, Ahmedabad and Samragye Singh of Chirec Public School, Hyderabad; both of them impressed the panel with their fitness and tennis skills. Also in the 15 are the two sisters from
Hyderabad, Teertha and Akshara Iska, who have been ranked 1 and 2 in India at the under-12 level. Another player who has been bringing laurels to India and has been selected is Ronit Bisht who won the Under-14 Asian Championship in Jakarta this March. Himanshu Mor of Haryana comes from a family, which boasts as many as five national and international level sportspersons. Himanshu never underwent any formal coaching and learnt his tennis by watching tournaments on the television and practicing on the tennis court which his father had built especially for him in their house.

The selected children will begin their new lives at the Bhupathi Tennis Village in Bangalore, post their year-end exams. After two months of rigorous training there, they will proceed to Le Centre d’Expertise de la Performance in Dijon, France, for physical strength and conditioning assessments. From there they will join the European Juniors Tour, returning home in August, before debuting on the domestic circuit with the national tournaments. They will return home for Diwali and then complete the rounds of the national tournaments before the Christmas vacations.

Apollo Tyres Mission 2018 was established in May 2007 in collaboration with Mahesh Bhupathi to identify and groom young talent from an early age, giving them the dedicated resources and exposure required to bring Grand Slam glory to India. This year marks the conclusion of the second round of selections for young prodigies. Around 1 billion rupees have been earmarked by Apollo Tyres for this tennis initiative.