Scholarship an opportunity for me: Priya

By our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 3: After a successful stint in the junior level Priya Kalita, one of the most promising players of the state, is ready to give full effort to achieve similar success in the next level. The city-based girl will fly to the USA in August with a lucrative sports scholarship for a period of four years during which she will pursue her career in sports as well as in academy.

In the recent past Priya performed exceptiolly well in the junior circuit. She won many titles at state as well as in tiol level championships.

Talking to The Sentinel at AATA complex, Priya today admitted that the scholarship came at right time and it also brought a great relief for her. Now she can freely concentrate on the game.

“At the senior level we need huge fincial support and unless I receive this scholarship it would be probably a very difficult job for me to continue the game,” said Priya, a big follower of Rafael dal. She also added: “Now I got a good opportunity and I will try to avail it in the best possible way.”

Last one year Priya really worked hard to achieve this scholarship and the story of her preparation can inspire many young talents who want to see them a successful person not only in tennis but also in other disciplines.

 “Once I was really thinking to quit the game because I belong to a middle class family and day by day the expenditure was going so high that it became a very difficult job for my parents to provide me the fincial support which I needed to continue the game. However, my coach Shiv Kumar Prajapati advised me not to quit the game and try to play at least the different tiol level meets. Thereafter, I came to know about this scholarship but it was not so easy to achieve as junior players whose intertiol ranking below 500 get the priority for those scholarship which are offered by the different American Universities. One year and a half back my ranking was around 2000 but I maged to bring it down below 500 with hard work and good support from my coach, parents and well wishers.”

It may be mentioned here that Priya was selected by  Miami University for this scholarship which carries a whopping amount of nearly 1.31 crore in Indian currency. During her stay in the USA the athlete, who is a trainee of NETF, will get free education, accommodation, foods, monthly allowance and also high quality training apart from playing competitive tennis in University level. Entire expenditure is included in the scholarship.

Disclosing her future plan, Priya said, “My first target is to prepare myself for professiol circuit. I am also interested to become a professiol tennis coach later.”

When asked what kind of support the state players now need to pursue their career in tennis, Priya replied, “A few things like support from parents, fincial back-up are absolutely essential. Players too should get ready to give 100 percent in the court.”

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