By IANS,
New Delhi : The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has launched a certificate programme for the coaches across the country.
The programme was launced at Agra Friday at the fifth national coaches’ workshop and was attended by 120 participants from all over the country.
The idea is to involve coaches nationwide in the programme to popularise tennis. Already India has more than 1.7 million tennis players, which is more than in Australia, and it is expected this number will increase to around four million in four more years, AITA said in a release.
Leading experts from the US – Chuck Kriese, who is a author of numerous books on tennis, Ted Murray, a cardio tennis expert, Vece Paes, Akhtar Ali, Jaidip Mukerjea, Nandan Bal and Enrico Piperno – will be delivering lectures.
AITA secretary general Anil Khanna also announced financial help to coaches, and an insurance programme whereby every player can receive free treatment for any type of injury or accident.
AITA also presented the 5th Dilip Bose Lifetime achievement award to Enrico Piperno. The four previous recipients are Akhtar Ali, C.G.K. Bhupathi, Nandan Bal, and T. Chandrasekaran.
A special award for excellent performance has been awarded to Yuki Bhambri’s coach Aditya Sachdeva.