India must focus on producing more singles players as the country needs regular representation in the four Grand Slams of the year, former player Vijay Amritraj said.
“Men or women does not matter. The point is we need singles players. We have no one in singles. The four Grand Slams this year, we had nobody playing in the singles. People start playing tennis because they want to be good in singles.
Everything else comes later. That is something we need to work on. I hope the Champions Tennis League would give our junior players a chance to be inspired and work even harder to do well in the singles,” CTL founder Amritraj said.
Sania Mirza is currently the world number one in women’s doubles and Leander Paes has won Grand Slam titles this year in mixed doubles in partnership with Swiss veteran Martina Hingis.
Into its second edition, the CTL this year has been a success with the spectators, players and others giving a thumbs-up to the event this year though the format needs to be explained more to the television audience, Amritraj said.
“The important thing is we know that the format works. The format works beautifully. All the players said the format is terrific, the crowds enjoyed it, the owners have enjoyed it.We just have to continue to engage with the crowds. I think we need to do little bit more with the juniors. I want them a little bit more engaged. See how best we can do that. We want to be able to explain a little bit more to the television audience what exactly is happening with the format.”
