Chennai:
Former India Davis cup captain, Vijay Amritraj apparently adopted diplomacy as he played down the controversy surrounding his absence at the draw ceremony of the ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament in Chennai on Sunday evening.
The legendary Indian tennis player, however, confirmed that he was not invited for the ceremony on Sunday, which had generated a strong media interest. Amritraj said, "In many peoples eyes, I would be a mascot of this event since I was responsible for its success all these years. Even now, I consider myself lucky to be associated with this tournament for so long and take pride in the fact that it has been a great success."
"Obviously, I was not invited by the organizing committee for the draw. I do not expect to be. I was there in the tournament more as a face of the tournament and it helped. May be, a lot of things I do, do not help," he said.
Later, Organizing Committee Chairman Karti Chidambaram, clarified his remark to a newspaper that "I respect AB Vajpayee who is a tall politician and I also respect Vijay Amritraj."
Amritraj, on being asked whether he was upset with lack of invites for the draw, he said, "very few things upset me. I am going to give television commentary. If they want me to do anything, I am willing to do. IMG (owners of the tournament) has a list of work to be done by me and I am going to do that. I hope that all our sponsors are happy and that is the key element to make this event a success," he said.
Amritraj, who was ATP President for eight years, on the issue of his son, Prakash, being denied a wild card entry for the event, clarified that, "My brief to the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association was very simple. I had told them months before that if Somdev was getting into the main draw based on his ranking and Moya was getting a wild card, then Yuki should be the next in line for it. That was my recommendation to the TNTA," he said.
Even Bhambri, current Australian Junior Open champion was made to play in the qualifiers ahead of Rohan Bopanna.
Confirming he had no issues with Karti P Chidambaram, who is also the vice-president of All-India Tennis Association, Amritraj said he was willing to do anything for the success of the Chennai Open. "I have no difference of opinion with Karti (Chidambaram) or anyone. My pick on this is only that I always wanted Chennai, where I was born, to be in the limelight and it is my commitment to TNTA to do my best towards this goal," the tennis legend said.
"I had functioned as non-executive chairman of the Organizing Committee. If the Committee requires my services in whatever capacity, I will always be available," he added.