India must have singles players in Grand Slams: Vijay Amritraj

The founder of CTL feels the India need to have more singles players for regular representation in the Grand Slams.

Hyderabad: India must focus on producing more singles players as the country needs regular representation in the four Grand Slams of the year, former player Vijay Amritraj said here on Sunday.

"Men or women does not matter. The point is we need singles players. We have no one in singles. The four Grand Slams this year, we had nobody playing in the singles. People start playing tennis because they want to be good in singles. Everything else comes later. That's something we need to work on. I hope the Champions Tennis League (CTL) would give our junior players a chance to be inspired and work even harder to do well in singles," CTL founder Amritraj told PTI ahead of the tournament final here.

India's Sania Mirza is currently the world number one in women's doubles and Leander Paes has won Grand Slam titles this year in mixed doubles in partnership with Swiss veteran Martina Hingis.

Into its second edition, the CTL this year has been a success with the spectators, players and others giving a thumbs-up to the event this year though the format needs to be explained more to the television audience, Amritraj said.

"The important thing is we know that the format works. The format works beautifully. All the players said the format is terrific, the crowds enjoyed it, the owners have enjoyed it. We just have to continue to engage with the crowds. I think we need to do little bit more with the juniors. I want them a little bit more engaged. See how best we can do that. We want to be able to explain a little bit more to the television audience what exactly is happening with the format," he said.

In the CTL format, the winner is decided on the basis of total number of points in the five set match. The five sets are Legend's Singles, Women's Singles, Mixed Doubles, Men's Doubles and Men's Singles.

Amritraj said he would take inputs from the players, television medium, team owners and others to see how the CTL can be improved next year. The tournament next year would be held when the ATP Tour Finals finishes.