Mashfia Afrin acheives a rare feat after she has been selected as the first Bangladeshi woman tennis referee to officiate in an international competition on foreign soil.
International Tennis Federation (ITF) selected Mashfia as an assistant referee for Junior Tennis Competition, scheduled to be held on 6-12 January in Delhi and 13-19 January in Kolkata.
Mashfia, who has been working as Junior Tennis Initiative (JTI) Coach of Bangladesh Tennis Federation (BTF) since June 2023, will leave Dhaka on 4 January and return home on 20 January.
Sarwar Mustafa Joy, an ITF white badge holder, was earlier selected as the referee of a tournament that will end on 11 January.
Mashfia started her career as a tennis player in 2010. She was a member of Bangladesh's first-ever team in the Billie Jean King Cup (Women's Tennis World Cup).
During her 13-year long playing career, she visited seven countries around Asia and took part in 18 international competitions.
Apart from these, she also competed in 50 national events at different age-levels including U-8s, U-10s, U-12s, U-14s, U-16s, and U-18s and senior level.
Mashfia started her career as a tennis coach in Elite Tennis Academy in 2022 while she started her career as an assistant referee in the ITF Asian U-14 Development Championship held in January 2023 in Dhaka.
She also officiated matches in JWTS-Bangladesh Junior Open Tennis Competition held in February 2023 in Dhaka.
Before starting as referee, Mashfia completed a course along with 21 other referees in the BTF’s ‘National Level Officiating School’ under ITF silver badged Indian referee Avishekh Mukharjee in December 2022.