Mahesh Bhupathi: Support Men’s Singles players in TOPS Scheme
The Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) has the doubles pairing of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan as a part of the programme but Mahesh Bhupathi has urged them to also include Singles players.
“I know Rohan and Divij have been approved by TOPS but the singles boys need to get that support. That’s the bottomline,” he said. “The government needs to step up and support tennis. I know they are supporting a lot of sports. They are supporting hockey, wrestling, boxing but tennis has not got that support yet,” Bhupathi further added.
“It’s not easy for AITA to support them as they don’t have a revenue source of money. I think the government have a lot of schemes likes TOPS, NSDF...”
Going deeper into explaining what he is feeling, the former Grand Slam Champion said, “Rome was not built in a day. I think the story for Indian tennis is changing. We have got three boys who can compete at this level, something we never had for a long time. There’s still potential especially for the singles boys.”
Asked if making the World Group was the maximum they could achieve, Bhupathi said: “Everybody needs to live in the real world. It’s a sport competed among 190 countries. Are there any team in Madrid without a top-100 singles player? I doubt.”
“These boys are working themselves up. Once we have a fully fit team I don’t see why we can’t make Madrid. We can’t expect miracles in sport. That’s not the way it works.”
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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2t1HoET
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