CHENNAI: Margaret Amritraj, wife of the late Robert Amritraj and mother of tennis players Anand, Vijay and Ashok, passed away on Saturday morning after prolonged illness. She was 92 and is survived by three sons and their families.Popularly known as Maggie, she was a player herself who supported and motivated her sons to take up tennis when it was still an amateur sport.
A woman entrepreneur, she ran a business. Her husband was among the senior most officers in the Railways. In 1985, she started the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy with Vijay at MCC School. The academy functioned for two decades and produced among others notable players like Leander Paes and Somdev Devvarman.
Maggie was a keen tennis lover and a disciplinarian, who instilled the qualities of hard work and dedication in her sons and later in other players. She used to be a regular at the Chennai Open and recently attended the awards function of TNTA, where her sons were felicitated for their contribution to tennis.
Anand was with her when she passed away. Vijay and Ashok are out of the country and will arrive in the city on Monday. The funeral mass is to be held at 10am on Tuesday at St Teresa’s Church, Mahatma Gandhi Road.