‘Our system best in Asia’

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) secretary, Anil Khanna, feels the game can become the most high profile one in the country with the help of the government and sponsors.

“We are pleased to have a singles player at 150th rank (Somdev Devvarman) and along with him a young player who is a junior Grand Slam winner (Yuki Bhambri).What is heartening is we also have others like Sanam Singh who are waiting for chances,” said Khanna, even as Devvarman helped India carve out a Davis Cup victory over Chinese Taipei over the weekend.

Khanna attributed the recent success of Indian players to the tournament structure in the country. “The AITA has perfected a system to bring players up to a particular level, that is between 300 and 500. We have around 36 to 40 international events ranging from ITF to Challenger to ATP, as well as the Asian Championships and Asia-Oceania tournament. The situation is similar on the junior circuit and that has helped someone like Yuki become the top junior in the world. In fact, I would say that the system in India is the best amongst Asian countries and in the top 10 of the world,” said Khanna, who is also the President of the Asian Tennis Federation.

“The eastern European players, the Serbians and the Ukrainians, have certain advantages as regards participation in tournaments. Travelling and visas are not a problem in that continent. Women players of China and Japan also have an advantage as not many women players from around the world want to tour there,” he said.