Sports India

While India desperately awaits another Sania Mirza to come up, tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi does a bit of reality check and feels the current crop of players in the women circuit lack what it takes to emulate the Hyderabadi sensation’s success at the international level.

“To be brutally honest, there is no one who can make it to the next level,” the 10-time grandslam winner said on the sidelines of the launch of Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academies’ centre here.

“Be that Isha Lakhani or Bhambari sisters – Ankita and Sanaa – I don’t forsee them making it big at the international level,” Bhupathi added.

The tennis ace, while acknowledging the game’s increasing popularity in the country, said the kids lacked proper coaching facilities and were learning tennis the wrong way.

Bhupathi said the sixth centre of the MBTA will help provide kids the right infrastructure and proper coaching to groom them in future tennis stars.

“It (opening an academy) was always at the back of my mind. The game is growing rapidly in the country but due to the lack of proper coaching, the kids are learning it the wrong way,” Bhupathi said.

“You can say it’s my way of giving back to the country and the game,” he added.

Former Davis Cupper and Asian games gold medallist Gaurav Natekar, who is one of the directors at MBTA also underlined the importance of harnessing young talent across the country.

MBTA was launched with an aim to professionalise tennis coaching and provide world class training to players in India.

As many as 385 kids were being trained at five MBTA centers – two at Mumbai and one each at Kochi, Nagpur and Udaipur.