All India Tennis Association (AITA) has recommended star players Ankita Raina and Prajnesh Gunneswaran for the Arjuna Award, for the year 2021. The national tennis federation has also nominated Enrico Piperno and Balram Singh for the prestigious Dronacharya Award.
"We have recommended Prajnesh Gunneswaran for Arjuna Award. In women's category, we have recommended the name of Ankita Raina for the Arjuna Award. Enrico Piperno and Balram Singh have been recommended for the Dronacharya Award," AITA secretary-general Anil Dhupar told ANI.
Last week, Dhupar said he is hopeful for a men's doubles qualification from India in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
The AITA secretary-general is also optimistic about Ankita bagging a berth in Tokyo Games after the governing body requested International Tennis Federation (ITF) to give her a wild card entry.
"We are hopeful for two things, one is men's doubles and Ankita's qualification definitely. We have written to ITF for Ankita to give her wild card in Olympics and we are awaiting a reply from them and hopefully by Monday will have a reply from them," Dhupar had said.
"We had written for men's singles also but they rejected because the cut-off is 105 but in Ankita's case she is an Asian Games Bronze medalist and normally the rule is that Asian Games gold medalist gets an entry," he informed.
"Since the gold and silver medalists are getting entry directly that's why we have applied that Ankita is also entitled to get in. Let's see what ITF decides on this," Dhupar pointed out.
Meanwhile, Ankita will play alongside Sania Mirza in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. Tokyo Olympics will begin on July 23 and the Games will run up to August 8 this year. The event was slated to be held last year but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor