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Calicut Tennis in 1980s

When one looks back to the history of tennis in Calicut, one name stands apart from others - P.N. Shivarama Pillai. In those days the only active private tennis court (other than the tennis courts in various colleges) was at Calicut Cosmopolitan Club. Mr. Pillai became so interested in tennis he not only learned tennis at the age of 39 but made his wife and children also play tennis. He also constructed a tennis court at the premises of his new residence. This court soon served a much bigger purpose and became a tennis court for the tennis playing public of Calicut. Many of our district tennis players started tennis from there. He was also instrumental in obtaining land for public courts, later known as Association Courts, in Calicut and got the Calicut Corporation to allocate land behind the current indoor stadium for tennis courts. The land that was allocated for the courts was a swamp marshland. He put in his own funds and raised funds from his friends to fill the land and put up 2 clay courts with fencing and a small hut for storage.



Thanks to his enthusiasm , Calicut had its first public tennis court facility in early 1980s, open to all. Coaching camps were organized and so were District ,All Kerala and All India tournaments. By 1986 He had become active in the Kerala Tennis Association. He brought the All India Hard Court tennis tournament which was a prestigious tennis tournament. This was held at the Association courts in Calicut and most of the top players in India played that event. He was also instrumental in bringing the International ATP Satellite tennis championships to Calicut in 1987. He continued to be an active in tennis administration till 1990-91 when business interests took him to Mysore. He passed away in 2004, but the era of tennis in Calicut from 1980 to 1990 under his leadership was indeed a golden one.

In 1987 KLTA hosted the prestigious Satellite International Tennis Tournament, in which more than 100 International and national players participated. The main venue was   Providence College  where 5 tennis courts were prepared for the event . Kerala State Minister T K Hamza inaugurated the event  A colourful opening ceremony , never held before in Calicut, was organised. Union Central Minister  Mr. K P Unnikrishnan  gave away the trophy  to the winners.. The man behind the event was Prof. T.D. Francis, former treasurer of All India Tennis Association. Mr. P.M. Udhuppu was then the president and Mr. S. G. Venkitachalam (Kannan) was Hony Secretary of the association.

(There is no record of any event since then). Later the name of the association was changed to Kozhikode District Tennis Association (KDTA) as the sponsoring state association's name was also changed to Kerala Tennis Association (KTA)

A meeting was convened by Mr. Mathew Samuel, President Kerala Tennis Association (KTA) in February 2009 to revive KDTA in the presence of Prof . T.D. Francis,

Treasurer of All India Tennis Association(AITA) , Dr. Joy Anto, Treasurer of Kerala Tennis Association and Kozhikode District Sports Council (KDSC) representatives.



An Executive Committee was elected at the meeting with Abdul Gafoor Kalliath as president and Dr. Najeeb A.M. as the Hony.Secretary. KDTA hosted State Junior Tennis Championship for (Under 14 and 16) in 2010.

New team of office bearers under President Dr. Krishnakumar K. K. and Hony. Secretary Ganesh S. took charge on 2 October 2011. Once again the association become inactive.

A new Executive Committee was elected on 14 May 2018 in the presence of Mr. Thomas Paul, Secretary of the KTA and Mr. K. J. Mathai, President, KDSC. Dr. K. A. Salam and Abdul Wahab A M were elected as the President and Hony. Secretary of KTDA respectively for 2018-2022.

District Championships were held every year since then. KDTA also organised an Inter Club Veteran's Tennis Championship (Sponsored by PK Steels) jointly with Calicut Cosmopolitan Club every year since 2018 inviting the Tennis Clubs of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.



When we look at the history of individual performances of tennis players, the name P.S. Sanjeev (S/o Mr. Shivarama Pillai) stands out. Sanjeev's performances as Junior, Senior and Veteran are as follows:

Kozhikode District Champion 1981. 1982 Kerala State Junior Champion 1983
Kerala State Men's champion: 1984, 1985, 1986
Calicut University 1980 to 1986, Captain of the team in 1986 , won 3rd place in Inter University
Played ATP Satellite tour 1986 and 1987 Won may USTA titles including Open 35, 45, 50 and 55 age categories.
USA Singles in 50+ Category National Ranking of 16 in 2016 and 7 in 2017 and currently Rank 13 in US in the 55s Categories