The cream of Indian tennis, spanning about 60 years, will be presented Davis Cup Commitment awards instituted by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) as part of the centenary celebrations, this season.
Ramanathan Krishnan, Jaidip Mukerjea, Premjit Lall, Vijay Amritraj, Anand Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi figure in the ITF honours list among Indians in an overall compilation of 299 players from 80 countries.
The criteria for selection was that a player should have competed in a minimum of 20 home or away ties, or 50 ties at any level including zonal competition in their career.
The ITF has advised the national tennis federations to present the awards to the players in home Davis Cup ties through the season, before the doubles rubber on the second day of the tie.
The AITA stated that only the availability of Mukerjea and Paes had been confirmed so far, for receiving the award during the Davis Cup tie against Korea to be staged here from February 1 to 3. Vijay Amritraj, Anand Amritraj and Mahesh Bhupathi have thanked the national federation for the invitation but have said that they would not be able to receive the award this time as they would be abroad.
Meanwhile, the AITA was awaiting confirmation from Ramanathan Krishnan and Ramesh Krishnan. The ITF would be putting the names of the players on the ITF honours board at its headquarters, including that of the late Premjit Lall.
The 39-year-old Paes, who has been competing in Davis Cup from 1990 and has an overall win-loss record of 86-32, including 48-22 in singles, will be competing in his 49th Davis Cup tie, the maximum for an Indian player.
The 76-year-old Ramanathan Krishnan had a 23-year career span in Davis Cup from 1953, during which he competed in 44 ties for an overall win-loss record of 69-28 including 50-19 in singles.
Jaidip Mukerjea (43), Premjit Lall (41), Anand (39), Mahesh (35), Vijay (32), Ramesh (24) follow in that order in terms of the number of ties played, and each one of them has competed over a minimum period of 15 years.
Domenico Vicini of San Marino, who has competed in 87 ties so far in the European Group ‘III’ or ‘IV’ level since 1993, has the overall record for competing in maximum number of ties at any level.
Nicola Pietrangeli of Italy who played in 66 ties, from 1954 to 1972, compiling a 120-44 win-loss record, tops the list of players who had played a minimum of 20 home or away ties in their career.
The centenary celebrations of the ITF began with the 100th Davis Cup final played last year between the Czech Republic and Spain. France tops the list with 15 awardees.
