Anand Amritraj: We struggled a lot when we were young
Former India Davis Cup Team Coach Anand Amritraj recently recollected his trial times as a professional along with his Brother - Vijay Amritraj.
“Vijay (Amritraj) and I were talking about it, thinking whether it was the same airport then," he said. "But I think when we came here in 1974, we came by train. It would take more than 24 hours. Imagine, we were the No 1 and No 2 players in India!"
Speaking about the drastic change in prize money over the course of 50 years, Amritraj added, "We played for the love of the game and 100-pound gift certificate from Wimbledon. Now if you play, you get upwards of $50,000 just to show up in singles and $10,000 in doubles. So if you play the four Grand Slams, singles and doubles, lose first round in all four, you make $240,000. It's a joke!”
"But then you have to play well all year so that you can get into these four events, which is a goal for most players."
He then remembered the qualifying days at the All England Club, "In the qualifying at Wimbledon, there was never a linesman. Maybe, an umpire. Definitely no ball boys. So a best-of-five match took three hours easily. But then the plus point is, you could take one minute between points, slowly go and pick up the ball. You had to rely on the umpire's calls and hope the guy you are playing is not a cheat."
He further added, “We struggled a lot when we were young. No money and basically no real resources. Luckily Vijay and I travelled together so it made life a lot easier.”
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