Some tennis some volleyball

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There’s nothing new about tennis and volleyball. But what about tennis volleyball? A blend of both the games, this is the emerging sport in the state, and getting popular elsewhere too, carrying with it the happy fusion — and appeal — of the two popular games.

The game, that came to the country many years ago, is played combining the rules of volleyball and tennis. Like in the tennis team event, two players will play double and two other players will play the singles.

However, the ball used is volleyball and serves and returns are done by hand. The server shall touch the baseline throughout the delivery of service and serve to the diagonally opposite side of the service court as in tennis.

“The game combines the rules of both the games. Already it has been recognized as an event in the National School Games. So we are trying to popularise the game in the state,” says C.M. Abdurahiman, state secretary of Tennis Volleyball Association.

District-level associations have been formed for the game, already, and Kerala has participated in the 13th National Tennis Volleyball Championship in New Delhi recently.

“A state-level championship will be organised in Kozhikode in April. Already, there is the Kerala state team and we need to increase the number of players and talents in the game,” he says.

In the last national championship, the women team of Kerala emerged as champions in the senior and sub junior category. The game is popular in northern India, and they also have an international championship.

“Tennis volleyball is played in the countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Thailand, Pakistan, Iran, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, and Australia, besides Hong Kong” he said.

“The mixed double event is one of the most interesting categories in the game. Since the game is very similar to volleyball, we expect that it will be a hit in the state, where volleyball is very popular,” he said.
Tennis volleyball came to Pune in 1986 and later spread to the other parts of the country.

The first national championship was held in 1999 and since then the championship is going on and all the states are sending in teams to take part.