Jim Courier predicts bright future for Indian tennis

Melbourne, Jan 21 (UNI) India may still be a long shot from producing a singles Grand Slam winner but if former world number one Jim Courier is to be believed than it wouldn't be too long before the Indian presence on the court begins to rival the likes of South America and Russia in the coming years.

The two-time French Open champion is impressed with the progress made by the Asians in the ongoing Australian Open and singled out India for praise, saying the country will produce quality players.

''It used to be that Australia and America and, to a lesser extent, France, had the bulk of the top players. We now have players coming from Asia, South America is a big success story as well, Russia is a factory right now on the men's and women's side. And India will soon be involved in a much greater extent,'' Courier, who is here for covering the event for a local network, told the 'Sydney Morning Herald'.

India is being represented by Sania Mirza, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, who are competing in the doubles event, in the Grand Slam of the Asia Pacific. Sania has crashed out of the singles event but remains in contention in both the women's doubles and mixed doubles event.

Courier, who ruled the court for more than a decade claiming four Grand Slam titles, felt with only four players in the men's top 50, the dominance of America and Australia in world tennis had come to an end.

Speaking about the Australian Open, Courier agreed with David Nalbandian and Maria Sharapova that Melbourne temperatures were too hot to handle at this time of the year and called on the organisers to shift the event to March.

''...if the players are starting to sense that it's no longer about tennis, it's no longer about training but merely survival, then we need to heed that. We need to look after all the constituents, the players, fans, everyone,'' he explained.

Courier said moving the event to March would also allow the players to take proper rest for a busy season. The American felt only financial constraints were coming in the way of the tournament being rescheduled.

''In terms of the scheduling of the entire season, it would make more sense as far as the calendar to have a longer build-up for the first major of the season. Having said that, there are a lot of financial considerations that will probably prevent that from happening in the next four to five years,'' he said.

''There are obviously a lot of different contracts that would need to be broken in order to make that happen, there are a lot of moving parts. While it would make sense, the reality of it is that this tournament will probably remain where it is for the time being,'' he added.

UNI