New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) New Davis Cup captain Anand Amritraj was all praise for two of India’s top tennis players – Somdev Devvarman and Leander Paes – for different reasons.
Devvarman was recently nominated for the ATP Comeback Player of the Year award along with World No.1 Rafael Nadal, Spaniard Tommy Robredo and Russian Dmitry Tursonov after rising from 664 to 90 in the rankings in a span of 10 months.
“To make a jump from 664 to 90 is amazing. That’s why he is one of the nominees for the comeback player of the year award. That is an honour for itself. That is like being nominated for the Oscars. Somdev is deserving of that award and should get up to 60 in the rankings,” Amritraj said here Friday.
“That’s what I told him and he was laughing. They can’t be giving Nadal all the trophies so better give it to one of the other three guys,” the 61-year-old quipped.
The former player also lauded Paes for winning the US Open title at the age of 40.
“Somebody told me that Leander wants to play till 2016 Rio Olympics, which would make him 43-years-old. It is amazing what he can do, what he does. To win the US Open title was an incredible effort — to beat the Bryan brothers and other best players of the world,” added Amritraj.
Amritraj was appointed the non-playing captain of India’s tennis team last month and his first assignment will be the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania First Round tie against Chinese Taipei from Jan 31 to Feb 2.
