Date:19/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/19/stories/2008091957911900.htm

Sport - Tennis

Uppal named national coach

NEW DELHI: Former Davis Cupper Vishaal Uppal has been named the national coach for the programme to prepare the Indian tennis players for the Commonwealth Games in 2010. With T. Chandrasekaran having returned to the Railways in Chennai earlier this month, the onus will be on the the 31-year-old Uppal to monitor the preparation of 40 players including Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna, Prakash Amritraj and Sania Mirza.

Doug MacCurdy of the US has been assisting Indian tennis for some time and is expected to mastermind the preparation, along with five other coaches.

The players are expected to have training and competition between August 2008 and March 2009.

The DLTA courts and the National Tennis Academy in Gurgaon are expected to serve as the training ground for the players, when they are not competing around the world.

The support staff of physical trainers, sports analysts, doctors and masseurs are expected to be identified in due course of time.

The list: Men: Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Prakash Amritraj, Rohan Bopanna, Somdev Dev Varman, Harsh Mankad, Ashutosh Singh, Vishnu Vardhan, Karan Rastogi, Vivek Shokeen, Sunil Kumar, Divij Sharan, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Yuki Bhambri, Sudanwa Sitaram, Akash Wagh, Vijayant Malik, Karunuday Singh, Ronak Manuja and Saurabh Singh.

Women: Sania Mirza, Sunitha Rao, Isha Lakhani, Rushmi Chakravarthi, Tara Iyer, Ankita Bhambri, Sanaa Bhambri, Sandhya Nagaraj, Prerna Mythri, Parul Goswami, Shikha Uberoi, Poojashree Venkatesh, Rashmi Teltumbe, Tanvi Shah, Kelsey Sundaram, Soniya Dayal, Kyra Shroff, Ankita Raina, Shweta Chandra Rana and Rishika Sunkara.

National coach: Vishaal Uppal, Coaches: Arun Kumar, Kawaljit Singh, Nar Singh, Sukhbir Singh, Shalini Thakur.

Foreign coach: Doug MacCurdy. — Special Correspondent