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Two under privileged children from the Capital City of Delhi had a field day and had a wish of theirs come true when they got to meet and interact with Great Britain’s Davis Cupper James Ward and Indian Davis Cupper Somdev DevVarman at the AirAsia Open on Saturday.

The Children who are part of the ‘Magic Bus’ (an NGO) programme of using Sports and Activity based approach to educate underprivileged children of Society, were flown into the City of Bengaluru by AirAsia, the tournament sponsors as part of their CSR initiative.

The two children, Prasantan, aged 12 and Badal, aged 14 along with their Youth Leader Fauzia are being hosted by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association and are put up at the Tournament’s Official Hotel, Ibis, Bengaluru.

The Children quizzed both James and Somdev on various topics including one for James that asked how he made friends with so much of travelling involved.

The Brit laughed and first said, “I don’t have many friends”, before getting serious and saying, “It is difficult, tough and takes a lot of sacrifice as tennis needs lot of travel for me to do well. There are advantages too. Family and friends get to come and watch some f your matches and performances and that gives them joy and for me too it is wonderful at times to have friends and family around. I have my fiancée here and so I do have company”.

Somdev was asked how he took to tennis considering he likes football a lot. The Indian Davis Cupper had to think hard before saying, “Where I grew up, there were lot of tennis courts and no football fields to play. So it was easy for me”.

Asked how the game of tennis has changed his life and what he sought to be, Somdev said, “My life is tennis. I am happy with where I am. I play tennis because I enjoy it and I am having fun playing the game. I want to just keep going. I feel good and I did not play because I wanted to be NO 1 in the country”.

He went on to add, “I work hard, exercise and have a trainer who guides me. In the beginning, it was tough, I had to wake up early and put in many hours of hard work. But now it has become a routine and I enjoy the routine. It has become a habit”.

The Indian World No 166 urged the children to get into a routine of staying fit and to enjoy whichever game they play before signing off.

The two children got to toss the coin during the second singles and semi-final and doubles final respectively.