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AITA to restrain private promoters

Special Correspondent

The ATP event was cancelled citing security concerns
Globosport sold the sanction for the WTA event

NEW DELHI: The All India Tennis Association has taken a serious note of the cancellation of the ATP and WTA Tour events that were scheduled to be held this month, and has decided to restrain private entrepreneurs from taking up such events in the future.

Following the executive committee meeting and the subsequent annual general meeting of the AITA in Goa on August 29 and 30, the national body unanimously resolved that the reasons provided by both the promoters of the ATP and WTA events were of considerable concern, as they projected a poor image of the country.

The ATP Tournament that had moved from the hands of Globosport in Mumbai to Reliance ADG in Bangalore was reportedly cancelled owing to security concerns.

The secretary general of the AITA, Anil Khanna, who got re-elected along with the president Yashwant Sinha and treasurer T.D. Francis for another term, said that he had met the CEO of ATP Asia-Pacific, Brad Drewett, during the Olympics in Beijing and briefed him about the situation. He sought the ATP to deal with the national federation in future rather than with private entrepreneurs.

In similar fashion, Globosport that had planned to hold the WTA event in Mumbai had reported that it had sold the sanction to another party, for the event to be held elsewhere at a later date.

No complaints

“We are happy with the ATP Tour event in Chennai run by the IMG and the WTA event held in Bangalore by the Karnataka Association. We don’t want private promoters creating misinformation and bringing disrepute to the country as an unsafe place for holding international events. This matter will be taken up with the Home Ministry,” said Mr. Khanna as he addressed the media on Monday evening.

The AITA secretary general reiterated the need for more Challengers to benefit Indian tennis and assured that six Challengers each for men and women would be held in 2009.

“We may go for bigger Challengers in the $75,000 to $100,000 category. We don’t want to buy Tour events. If the private promoters want to join hands with the AITA to do events, they are welcome,” said Mr. Khanna.

Moving on to the other decisions, it was announced that Pune would hold the Asian Championship from December 8. Since the Australian Open will not be awarding wild cards to the champions of the Asian event anymore, attempts would be made to get wild cards sanctioned in the Qatar Open and the Dubai Open.

“We are planning to host the Asia Cup for the top eight players of the region in Pune in the week following the Asian Championship”, Khanna revealed.

Former Davis Cup captain, Jaideep Mukherjea has been made the Chairman of the Commonwealth Games Preparatory Committee.

Mr. Mukherjea will captain of the Indian veterans’ team at the World Championship at Antalya, Turkey, from October 12 to 18. Notably, the Indian team will also feature the Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

India will also be focussing on the coaches’ education and is all set to be one of the two new countries along with Egypt to award international coaching certification in future. Only Australia and Spain have such authority at the moment.

“Doug McCurdy (an American coach) is a pioneer in the coaches education programme and we want to use his services for this pilot project,”said Mr. Khanna.

Mr. McCurdy is serving Indian tennis as part of the initiative by the International Tennis Federation and the International Olympic Committee.

Meanwhile, it was stated that though the DSCL had opted to skip the season for hosting the National championship at the DLTA that is being rebuilt for the Commonwealth Games, the AITA would stick to its commitment and hold the event for all age groups apart from the men’s and women’s events, with a restriction on the numbers in the qualifying event.

It was mentioned that the National grasscourt championship may not be held yet again because there was no slot in the calendar.

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