Akhtar Ali (
Urdu
Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
: اختر علی) (5 July 1939 – 7 February 2021), was an Indian
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player. He was a member of the Indian Davis Cup team continuously from 1958 to 1964 and captain of Indian Davis Cup in 2008.
Career
He played his first known singles tournament in 1956 at the Rothmans Invitation at Eastbourne. The same year whilst touring England he won his first singles title at the New Malden Open against compatriot Arvind Charanjiva. He won his final known singles title at Jaipur in 1964.
He played his final known tournament at the Singapore Grass Court Championships in 1983 at the age of 44. He competed at the Wimbledon Championships four times with his best result coming in 1961 when he made it to the second round. He also competed at French Championships played at Roland Garros in 1956 and 1958.
His other career highlights include; winning the
Ceylon Championships in 1960 against
Sumant Misra and 1962 against V.R. Balasubramaniam. He also won the Saint-Lunaire International in France against
Lew Gerrard and the Jaipur International against
Alan Mills.
Post playing career
Later he turned to coaching and coached the players like
Ramesh Krishnan
Ramesh Krishnan (born 5 June 1961) is an Indian tennis coach and former professional tennis player. As a junior player in the late 1970s, he won the singles titles at both, Wimbledon and the French Open. He went on to reach three Grand Slam q ...
,
Vijay Amritraj
Vijay Amritraj (; born 14 December 1953) is an Indian sports commentator, actor and retired professional tennis player from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri, the government of India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in 1983.
In 2022, ...
,
Anand Amritraj and
Leander Paes
Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player and the first Asian man to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all-tim ...
. He was father of
Zeeshan Ali
Zeeshan Ali (born 1 January 1970) is a former Indian Davis Cup player who also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. The right-hander reached his highest singles ATP ranking on 12 December 1988, when he became the number 126 of th ...
, a former Indian national tennis
champion
A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional/provincial/state, national, continental and world champi ...
,
Nilofer Ali and
Zareen Desai.
Akhtar Ali started a junior development programme at the South Club. The trainees were divided into three categories — under-14, under-16 and under-18. Free coaching was provided to the state's best players.
Akhtar Ali died on 7 February 2021, aged 81.
Indian tennis great Akhtar Ali passes away
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Awards
Winner of the Arjuna Awardees in Lawn Tennis in 2000.
References
External links
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Bengal Tennis
– The Bengal Tennis Association is the governing body of West Bengal's Lawn Tennis activities.
2021 deaths
Indian male tennis players
1939 births
Recipients of the Arjuna Award
{{India-tennis-bio-stub