He wants to be like Rios
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Oct 27 — His love for tennis brought him to Chandigarh from Hoshiarpur about five years ago. Regular practice at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association courts in Sector 10 made him a national champion in the under-16 age group. He is Amanjot Singh, a Class XI student of St Stephen's School in Sector 45, who began his tennis career in 1995.

Amanjot's businessman father Mr Jaspinder Singh is his inspiration. He got the intitial training in the game from Sandeep Singh before being spotted by Kanwaljit Singh, a senior coach who further polished his game.

Recently, Amanjot won the under-16 singles' title at the DSCL National Tennis Championship held in Delhi. There, he became the third UT player to win a crown after Sunil Kumar and Akshay Vishal Rao won the men's and under-18 singles' titles, respectively. Amanjot, later, clinched the doubles title also in partnership with Saurabh Singh. In the singles' final, he beat Pratim Parekh of Maharashtra.

Past year, Amanjot had lost in the earlier rounds of this event in the tournament, but had reached the semi-finals in the under-14 section.

Earlier this year, Amanjot won two titles in the Adidas Zonals. He was also runners-up in the Adidas Masters. He won again at the AITA Open in Bangalore and two zonal meets at Yamunanagar and Amritsar.

In 1998, Amanjot won the doubles' titles in the under-14 and under-16 sections of the DSCL National Championships. He also won the Adidas Zonals held at Chandigarh and Yamununagar. Amanjot also reached semi-finals of the DSCL National Championships past year in the under-14 section. At the Chennai National Championships, he reached the semi-finals in the under-16 section.

In the under-14 singles event of the National Championship held at Chandigarh in 1997, Amanjot reached the semi-finals.

Amanjot gets financial support from his father and has played in Uzbekistan, Taipei and Bangladesh, besides other countries.

He is a fan of Marcelo Rios and his aim is to reach the standard of his hero.

Amanjot said city players were doing well and there would the more titles for them this year.

Amanjot who has also taken part in all ITF tournaments gives a lot of importance to physical training which he undergoes in the supevision of Gurjit Singh.

He had scored 76 per cent marks in the Class X examinations. He praised his Principal, Mr Harold Carver, for helping him in taking care of his studies.