All India Tennis Association Held The First Meeting

Written by: Staff on 1st April 2013

All India Tennis Association Held The First Meeting |

The newly formed Indian Tennis Players’ Association held its first meeting in Bengaluru ahead of that country’s Davis Cup relegation tie against Indonesia on Friday.

The ITPA was formed to represent the professional interests of tennis players across the country. The idea for the association came up when top India players battled the All India Tennis Association (AITA ) over Olympic and Davis Cup issues.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna took the lead last year before the Olympics in deriding the selection process, and then Somdev Devvarman was the most outspoken member when 11 players made themselves unavailable for the Davis Cup tie against Korea in February after the AITA didn’t agree with their suggestions.

According to the Deccan Chronicle, ITPA members are Jaideep Mukerjea, Mahesh Bhupathi, Karti Chidambaram, Somdev Devvarman, Rohan Bopanna, Enrico Piperno, Manisha Malhotra, Prahalad Srinath, Aditya Sachdeva and Mustafa Ghouse.

AITA and ITPA have come to an agreement on a number of issues since then, but Bhupathi and Bopanna are not on the squad that will face Indonesia.

The team will consist of Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri , Sanam Singh as well as doubles standout Leander Paes, who has not joined ITPA and has been in consistent disagreement with Bhupathi and Bopanna over issues and is considered an ally of AITA.

“All the players are sticking together and that’s a positive sign and it’s not going to change anytime soon,” Devvarman said of his group. “It’s very evident to all of us that we are doing what is correct and what is right for the sport in the country. We are always going to support each other. It’s rare and it’s a beautiful group to be a part of it’s our right to voice our opinion, India is a free country where people have always voiced their opinion if we don’t like it, we’ll say it. That’s the way I have been brought up…. We are going to be there in full force supporting the team during the Davis Cup tie and we will be there in full force to make sure what changes we set out to do in Indian tennis happens.”

Bhupathi added that what they are trying to do is to “call for better process in tennis and make it a better sport for everyone.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Aditya Sachdeva, All India Tennis Association, Enrico Piperno, ITPA, Karti Chidambaram, Mahesh Bhupathi, Manisha Malhotra, Mustafa Ghouse, Prahalad Srinath, Rohan Bopanna, Somdev Devvarman, Sports, Tennis News