Star players take a hit in sports ministry's tennis list

New Delhi: Leander Paes and Saket Myneni were dropped from an initial list of tennis players shortlisted for a monthly allowance from the sports ministry to prepare for the forthcoming year as well as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Also missing is India’s top woman singles player, Ankita Raina.

Making this a curious move is the fact that besides Paes’ outstanding career  and a long list of titles Myneni received the Arjun Award this year for his sport. Those picked for the monthly Rs 50,000 allowance include Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan, top doubles player Rohan Bopanna and young talent Sumit Nagal. Three women— Sania Mirza, Prarthana Thombare and Karman Kaur Thandi — are also on the shortlist,

Ankita is ranked 260 in the world, while Prarthana, who played the Rio Olympics with Sania, is ranked 801 in singles. There are nine Indian players ranked above her.

In the doubles though, Thombare is country’s second highest ranked player at number 129 behind Sania, who is now world number eight.

In all, 152 athletes across several disciplines have been picked to assist their preparations for next year’s Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the Tokyo Olympics.

According to a ministry official, the list was not a final one as names could be added or deleted based on ongoing performance assessments.

A review committee is to meet before the end of the month to evaluate performance of the chosen athletes. According to the official, the list was based on inputs from national federations and government observers apart from the ministry’s own research committee.

For tennis, Somdev Devvarman is the national observer. The announcement that the government would support athletes’ preparations was made by sports minister Rajyavardhan Rathore. It indicated that the ministry had accepted the recommendations of the Olympic Task Force, headed by Abhinav Bindra, in this regard.