Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) Junior Australian Open winner Yuki Bhambri was felicitated with a Rs.500,000 cheque by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) here Saturday.
His coach Aditya Sachdeva was presented a cheque of Rs.50,000 at the function held at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) complex. Sachdeva will also be awarded the Dilip Bose coach award in AITA’s annual coach workshop in Agra in March.

Announcing the awards, AITA Secretary General Anil Khanna lauded Yuki’s win at the Australian Open as a “terrific achievement”.

“Yuki’s achievement began last year with a fantastic performance at the Junior Davis Cup. With the win at Australia he has emulated the feats of Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh Krishnan and Leander Paes. He is now a junior No.1 ranked player and it is a terrific achievement. We will support him in every possible way,” Khanna said.

“The Delhi government too has promised to support Yuki’s endeavour.”

Khanna praised Sachdeva for honing Yuki’s talent and said with Dilip Bose coach award he has joined the ranks of Akhtar Ali, C.G.K. Bhupathi, Nandan Bal and T. Chandrasekhar, who have been given the award in the past.

“Aditya has done excellent work with Yuki. We all know he is very committed and an excellent coach. I hope he continues to make great contributions to Indian tennis,” he said.

Yuki said he hoped to play in more ITF tournaments in India. “I will need to play in a lot of ITF tournament this year and I request Mr. Khanna to bring as many ITF tournaments as possible to India.

The ceremony was attended by former tennis players Naresh Kumar, Vishal Uppal and Rohit Rajpal.

Yuki last week became the first Indian to win junior Australian Open and fourth in the country to win a junior Grand Slam.