Sports India

Tennis lovers in the Capital have it made. The Asian Hopman Cup, the first of its kind, will be held in the city, in the week starting November 13.

Apart from being crowned Asian champions, the winners of this event will get to take part in the Hopman Cup in Australia. The prestigious tournament, recognised by the International Tennis Federation as their official mixed team competition, will feature an Asian team as participants as early as the next edition which begins in December.

The news may come as a surprise to many, but secretary general of the All India Tennis Association, Anil Khanna reveals that discussions had begun as early as January 2005, at the Australian Open.

“Tennis Australia, the Asian Tennis Federation and Paul McNamee, director of the Hopman Cup Organising Committee were the three parties involved. A formal dialogue finally started at this year’s Australian Open. The All India Tennis Association requested the ITF to let India organise the event,” said Mr Khanna, who is also the President of the Asian Tennis Federation.

“The final decision was taken on July 3, during the Wimbledon championships by the ITF and Tennis Australia. The tournament will be held in India for the next three years.” The venues for the second and third years are yet to be decided.

The format of the event, which saw USA emerge as champions in 2006, consists of three rubbers - men’s singles, women’s singles and mixed doubles.

Asians are rapidly making their mark in the world of tennis, particularly the women, and players from Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Japan, India, Uzbekistan, China and the Philippines have been invited to take part in the tournament.

“Of course, we are hoping that players like Paradorn Srichaphan, Na Li, Ai Sugiyama will be among the ones taking to the court; but we haven’t received any names as yet from the respective federations,” said Khanna.

And for those who think that this will be a chance to blood young Indian talents like Vivek Shokeen and Divij Sharan, such thoughts are firmly brushed aside by Khanna, “We cannot expect to put up a challenge in the Asian Hopman Cup without having experienced players in our team, and for this reason it will probably be players like Leander Paes and Sania Mirza who will be in action.”

The matches will be played at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association on the synthetic courts, and the AITA President is confident that the facilities will be completely satisfactory.

“We have already started planning, though nothing has taken on a concrete shape yet. The satellites will end on September 3; after that there is no tennis for some time, and so we can focus completely on the Asian Hopman Cup. We will put in every possible effort to improve the courts, the other facilities, and whatever else is required to make the event a success,” he said