Tennis player Vishnu Vardhan Turns Entrepreneur with Tennishub.in
Young tennis star Vishnu Vardhan, ranked 300 as per ATB Tennis rankings has taken a plunge into entrepreneurship alongwith his friend and ex-tennis player Afroze Khan. The duo has launched Tennishub.in – an online store that sells everything related to tennis. From shoes, racquets, jerseys, balls to bags – everything one requires to play the sport of tennis will be available at the store.
Started about two months back, based in Hyderabad, Tennishub.in is currently a six-member team that takes care of all aspects of the business. However, Afroze leads the initiatives as the co-founder of Tennishub. Afroze was a professional junior tennis player, but had to give up professional play due to an injury. While he had to give up the sport due to injury, Afroze fondly reminisces about his stint of working at Wimbledon, when he was pursing his studies in London. Talking about the opportunity for Tennishub, Afroze says, “Tennis today is a very aspirational sport and there are many youngsters who are actively taking it up. When it comes to finding the right gear to play the game there is always a problem. We want to help solve this problem through Tennishub.”
The startup has also tied up with sport academies in Hyderabad and Bangalore and going forward will talk to academies across the country to supply products to players in these academies. Afroze says they will be directly sourcing the products from manufacturers, to ensure the prices are kept under check and reasonable.
While Afroze is involved in the day-to-day activities of the startup, he says Vishnu finds time for the venture whenever he is not busy with the sport. The venture is bootstrapped at this point, but Afroze says they are looking for funding to help expand their product offerings. “In the coming months, we would like to expand our range of products to cover other sports as well. We want to be known as the best platform for quality and affordable sports products in the country,” says Afroze.
Many from the sporting fraternity tweeted in support of the venture at the launch. Sania Mirza, Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna were some of the players who tweeted their support. Here is what they had to say.
Sania Mirza - “Good to see a professionally handled online tennis store in India. All the best to the team of tennishub.in.”
Somdev Devvarman - “Exciting that a website like tennishub.in has come up in India. No excuses that we cant get the best tennis equipments anymore.”
Rohan Bopanna - “The best online tennis store for all tennis products in India for great quality and best prices.”
Yuki Bhambri - “Finally a dedicated website with a professional team to get all your tennis products at your door step.”
Divij Sharan - “Great medium for tennis lovers to buy the products of their choice sitting at home at amazing prices.”