Tennis
Leander Paes, Vijay Amritraj to be inducted into International Tennis Hall of Fame
Leander, winner of 18-time Grand Slam titles, and Amritraj, who won 15 career titles, became the first Asian men to be elected to the prestigious Hall of Fame board.
Leander Paes and Vijay Amritraj
Indian tennis legends Leander Paes and Vijay Amritraj have been elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame as the board has announced its Class of 2024 on Wednesday. They will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame in July next year.
Leander, winner of 18-time Grand Slam titles, and Amritraj, who won 15 career titles, became the first Asian men to be elected to the prestigious Hall of Fame board.
The Tennis Hall of Fame, based in Newport, Rhode Island, has been active since 1955. Along with Leander and Amritraj, Richard Ingham Evans, a British journalist and historian, was elected to the Hall of Fame in the Contributor Category.
India is the 28th nation to be represented in the list.
Amritraj was also chosen in the Contributor Category, while Leander made it to the list in the Player category.
Leander won eight major championships in doubles and 10 in mixed and is one of three men in tennis history with a career Grand Slam in both.
Li Na, the Chinese women's legend who won two Grand Slam titles, became the first Asian women's player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019.
The Hall of Fame ceremony will be held in Newport on July 20.
The selection of Leander also ended a two-year drought in which no player nominated for the category was picked.
The Class of 2022 marked the first time in history that no one was selected. It repeated in the Class of 2023 again.
The candidates are chosen on 75% of ballots; voters include media, historians, Hall of Fame members, industry experts and fans.
“It has been my life’s honor to play for my country for over three decades in a sport that has given and taught me everything. ... Induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame belongs not just to me, but to our billion-plus Indians,” Leander said.
“Receiving this honor culminates a professional journey of a lifetime, standing on the shoulders of greats and sets the tone for other youngsters in Asia and around the world," he added.
