New Delhi: An amount of Rs. 1.59 crore has been sanctioned so far under ‘Operation Excellence for London Olympics 2012’ (OPEX 2012) scheme through National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) for the training of Tennis players till December 2011.

This was stated by All India Tennis Association (AITA) Executive Director Col. R.S. Chauhan, in review meeting of the preparation for Olympics, 2012, called by  Ajay Maken, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports. As all the Tennis players in the core group are professionals, they have been provided US $ 6000 per month as financial assistance under NSDF scheme (06 men +01 women) for meeting expenses for their training and competitions under NSDF scheme. The details of these players are as follows:

Besides, two more players, namely, Isha Lakhani and Rituja Bhonsle have been sanctioned an amount of US $ 3000/- per month for training grants, hiring of trainer, etc, with effect from January, 2012.

In the meeting the Sports Minister also stressed the need to create structure of domestic tournaments, which might, among other things, also, help in improving the international rankings of the     Indian   players. The Minister also assured full support of the Ministry for establishing the such structure of domestic tournaments.

AITA officials also appraised Ajay Maken about the manner in which the qualification for Olympics in Tennis takes place. The qualification is based on ITF World ranking of a player on a certain date and the date for which rankings will be considered for this year’s events is 14.06.2012. It was also stated by AITA that in order to optimise the likelihood of qualification, all players will be playing the major International matches approved by the ITF to gain maximum ranking points.

It was also discussed in the meeting that there is a need to identify the best possible doubles and mixed-doubles combinations to whom tournament-intensive training can be given because the chances to finish on podium are more in Men’s doubles and Mixed doubles events.

Four Tennis players from India qualified for Beijing Olympic Games, 2008. Sania Mirza participated in both Women’s singles and Women’s doubles; her partner in the latter wasSunitha Rao. Sania Mirza lost in round of 64 in individual events while in doubles she and Sunitha Rao reached the Round of 16. Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes were participants in Men’s doubles category and together they went to the Quarter Finals.