Former Davis Cupper JaideepMukherjea was today appointed President of the newly-formedIndian Tennis Players Association (ITPA) while Leander Paeswas surprisingly named as one of three Vice Presidents.
The ITPA had its first meeting here and chose MaheshBhupathi and Somdev Devvarman as the other Vice-Presidents.
Karti Chidambaram, AITA Vice President, will be thesecretary of the Association, Mukherjea announced.
Other members of ITPA are Rohan Bopanna, Enrico Piperno,Manisha Malhotra, Prahalad Srinath, Aditya Sachdeva andMustafa Ghouse.
The Association has come up after 11 top players revoltedagainst AITA, demanding better playing conditions. They madethemselves unvailable for the tie against South Korea.
Paes had stayed away from the rebellion and his becominga part of the Association came as a real surprise.
Mukherjea said ITPA is being constituted as a Section 25company and is built on the premise that the existingstructure of tennis administration in the country does notrepresent or adequately address contemporary issues faced byplayers in the country.
Mukherjea said membership is opened to all current andformer international and national tennis players.
"Basically, we want to help younger generation of tennisplayers. We are thinking of tournaments where Indian playerscan make some extra money," he said.
The body is thinking of having a foreign coach andconducting benefit matches for ex-players to raise funds forthem.
"We also want to conduct training camps for youngplayers," Mukherjea said.
Mukherjea said that ITPA was no threat to AITA.
"Today you have seen people having differences sitting onthe same table and that says a lot. I have a very good rapportwith All India Tennis Association President Anil Khanna andothers," he said.
Somdev said ITPA will provide suggestions for theimprovement of the sport in the country and bring a balancedand objective view to the running of the organisation.
The 11 revolting players, led by Somdev, had put forwarda charter of demands before AITA ahead of the Chennai Open.
AITA yielded to most of the demands but the playersrefused to compete in the Korea tie since they did not get afew assurances in writing.
The AITA recently gave all the assurances in writingwhich ended the rebellion for the time being.
AITA agreed to increase players` share in Davis Cup prizemoney, change the support staff and consult them for choice ofvenue and surface.
The parent body also agreed to give the players businessclass airfare, a six-member squad for even away ties, andagreed to consult them for the appointment of teamphysiotherapist.