Anil Jain, Member of Parliament of Rajya Sabha, has been elected as All India Tennis Association’s (AITA) new President at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) which was held here on Sunday. Jain, who served as the Vice-President of AITA from 2016-2020, was elected unanimously to lead the administration of AITA after Praveen Mahajan’s tenure as AITA President came to an end this year.

All the posts of office-bearers as well as the Executive Committee members were filled without the need for a contest and all the contestants were declared elected unopposed. Jain, in his inaugural address, spoke of his commitment to work towards the promotion of tennis and increasing the reach of the sport in the country, improvement of infrastructure, coaching and training opportunities, and bringing more and higher level of international competition into the country.

“In collaboration with the AITA Trust, the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association, and with support from the government, we propose to set up the High-Performance Tennis Academy in Delhi which will be a residential training centre for excellence. The primary aim would be to bring together and create a pool of our top junior players and provide them with the best possible training, coaching, nutrition, mental training, and every other support to help our most talented and promising juniors to break into the top 30 in Junior Category in the world,” said Jain as he announced the launch of a High-Performance Tennis Academy in Delhi. The Academy will be equipped with the most modern facilities including a dedicated gym, swimming pool, sports medicine center, A-I based performance monitoring, and enhancement systems, etc and would be run by a team of the top coaches, trainers, nutritionists, sports psychologists, sports medicine specialists, etc.

The Academy would also be available to the senior athletes who wish to undergo shorter stints of specialised training. Jain also expressed the hope of working closely with the Ministry of Sports, Government of India for financial aid, and other support necessary for AITA initiatives. “We shall be actively pursuing all possible financial and other support from the government as well as corporates to help get the Academy project and all of AITA’s initiatives off the ground at the earliest,” said Jain.

On improving the quality and number of elite Indian players, Jain said, “We look forward to promoting efforts to help improve our performance and stature on the international stage.” Speaking on the current scenario of AITA’s domestic tournament calendar being on halt amid the coronavirus pandemic, Jain said, “In the short term, with support from all of the stakeholders, AITA must try and mitigate the COVID-19 impact on its tournament-structure and bring the sport back to pre-COVID levels at the earliest. And from there on, we have to work hard on improving further in all aspects of the sport.”

Jain signed off his address saying, “I am looking forward to starting close interactions with the Sports Ministry to secure their support in moving forward with our plans to help improve the reach and depth of game in India as well as the caliber of our elite tennis players in all age groups – who would also be our medal hopes at upcoming international events like Youth Olympic, Olympics and Asiads.” Anil Dhupar was elected as the Secretary-General and Rohit Rajpal will serve as the Treasurer of AITA.

After being elected for the said post, Dhupar said, “The biggest challenge in the short term would be to get the AITA tournament circuit back in action.” (ANI)