Champions Tennis League will benefit India: Amritraj

October 22, 2014 12:33 am | Updated May 23, 2016 03:54 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

Vijay Amritraj has assured that the Champions Tennis League, to be played in six cities from November 17 to 26, would benefit Indian tennis and project India in a positive way to the world.

In a chat with the media here on Tuesday, he spoke about the affordability of tickets — priced at Rs. 600, Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 2,000 per day — apart from the television coverage by Sony which will also reach American homes.

Great opportunity

Amritraj said it would be a great opportunity for the Indian juniors selected to be part of the bandwagon.

All India Tennis Association president Anil Khanna, who also addressed the media, appreciated the initiative and said efforts were being made to check the availability of leading Indian women players in the under-21 age group, as well as the juniors.

The six teams, set to be balanced in terms of quality of the top players, will also have Indian Davis Cuppers. “There can be a lot of benefit from the league. The juniors can learn from the experience, the knowledge and the work ethic of the top players. We will be guided by the AITA in the selection of the juniors,” said Amritraj.

Stating he was happy to keep the league India-centric — to be played in Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Pune and Mumbai — Amritraj said he had already spoken to Indian Tourism to capitalise on the venture.

Amritraj said he had put up a two-minute video capsule addressing the top-25 players scheduled to be part of the league, ‘to come and see India through his eyes’, and ‘enjoy the incredible hospitality and play competitive tennis’.

After deliberations, it was decided that the final would be played in Delhi on November 26.

The logos and merchandise would be launched by the various franchise owners shortly, while the tickets would go on sale from November 3 on the website bookmyshow .

Two matches

There will be two matches at two different venues on every play day and will start at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. The champion team will be presented Rs. 1 crore and the runner-up Rs. 50 lakh. Conceding that there was a lot of scope for developing further on the idea, Amritraj said the league would evolve with the passage of time, and hoped to breakeven by the third year.

With most of the leading games in the country already having a league of their own, Amritraj said it was satisfying to have one in tennis, a truly global game. “We were the first professionals in the country among all games,” recalled Amritraj.

The CEO for the league, Arjun Rao, stressed that the logos would be of international standard even though the names of the teams might be Indian.

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