New Delhi [India], January 17 (ANI/GPRC): Racket sports refer to any sport that involves the use of a racket. Some of the sports that come under this category are badminton, tennis, squash, table tennis and pickleball among others. While many Indian sportspersons have achieved great things in this sport category, there was a dearth of a strong system that would help players, who are interested in racket sports, to get the kind of opportunities they deserve.

To bridge this gap, Dhruv M. Bagla founded Rackonnect which has emerged as India's first one-stop destination for all those who play racket sports. The mission of Rackonnect is to put together an elaborate sports community that would inspire and motivate racket sports fanatics to create a name for themselves in this space, while helping improve mental and physical fitness.

Talking about the vision behind Rackonnect, founder Dhruv M. Bagla says, "As we all know, India is a cricket-crazy nation. That is a great thing as very few countries have the kind of clout India has in this space. However, promoting other sports is equally important. We have designed Rackonnect as a hyperlocal sports-tech platform that aims to create a powerful impact on India's racket sports community which is quite big. Our goal is to make racket sports accessible to everyone regardless of their age, gender and economic background."

Rackonnect has been strengthening the racket sports ecosystem through infrastructure development and distribution of equipment. By combining sports and technology, the company is focussing on empowering grassroot-level players and helping them achieve their goals and ambitions. While the vision of the company is to raise awareness of racket sports and make racket sports available to all, its strategy is to provide a competitive platform through tournaments to scout and nurture promising players.

Elaborating on this, Dhruv says, "One of our USPs is the Rackonnect Tournament Solution. The kind of facilities we are providing players, coaches and others is the kind no other company or individual has offered in India till date. We organize tournaments without making the stakeholders go through hectic paperwork. Tech being the backbone of the company, has enabled users to do all their tasks online which they would otherwise do on paper, thereby simplifying the task of managing an event, thereby making events more competitive. We spent hours making algorithms that would automate things such as draw seeding and separation, automated match scheduling, real time updates, and many more. We are implementing methods and proposals that would make everything that happens in the racket sports space more transparent and organized."

At the moment, Rackonnect has five badminton arenas located in Delhi/NCR. Its badminton arena at Noida Indoor Stadium is a sight to behold. It features 10 BWF-approved wooden cum synthetic courts, a sitting capacity of 5,000 people, free parking, healthy cafe and shower facility. Having ventured into the infrastructure space in June 2021, rackonnect is confident of a fast-paced expansion journey wherein by 2025 they plan to have 50 state of the art facilities in North India. "The vision of making North India the biggest hub for badminton may seem far sighted, but the support and encouragement we have got in a short span will definitely make this vision come true," adds Dhruv.

Apart from offering event bookings for corporate, institutions and international accredited tournaments, Rackonnect assures you of wider reach, increased efficiency, reduced time and cost and helps players build their tournament portfolio. For offering racket sports coaching, the company has joined hands with Padukone Sports Management which is helmed by badminton legend Prakash Padukone. In the near future, Rackonnect plans to come up with several unique initiatives that would propel the growth of the racket sports community forward.

Apart from focusing on several initiatives for the enhancement of racket sports, Rackonnect has also introduced a social initiative by the name of Racket for All to encourage prospective racket sports enthusiasts who are unable to pursue the sport due to social and economic restrictions. Rackonnect organizes regular workshops, tournaments, equipment donation drives to ensure exposure for these athletes.

Lastly, Dhruv Bagla added, "This year is going to be a big one for the entire Rackonnect team due to several expansion plans and Rackonnect strives to support the growth of professional players and wants to be a part of the journey for glory".

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