New Delhi: Asian Games Bronze Medal Ankita Raina and Prajnesh Gunneswaran have been nominated for a prestigious Arjuna award by the National Tennis Federation, which has also sent the name Balram Singh and Enrico Piperno for Honor Dhyanchand.
Ankita and Prajnesh both won a single bronze medal in 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta and Palembang.
Ankita now is the best single (182) in the country (95) player and arranged to make an Olympic debut in the Tokyo match next month.
“This year we have nomined ankita and prajnesh for Arjuna while the names of Balram Sir and Enrico Piperno who were highly respected have been sent for the honor of the achievement of a lifetime, Dhyanchand,” said the Indian Tennis Association (Aita) to PTI.
Ankita is 28 years old has become an Indian key player on the Billie Jean King Cup team for the past three years.
He was nominated for ‘Arjuna’ last year but the Asian Games gold medalist Divir Divir Sharan managed to pocket awards.
Prajnesh is one of the most adult players in the current generation of India.
If he did not lose five years of crucial for fracture of knee stress, his career would be a completely different story.
The 31-year-old left hander from Chennai, ranked 148 on the ATP chart, has played five Davis Cup bonds for the country.
In the category of lifetime achievement, Balram Singh, who has a 50-year relationship with Indian tennis, will Vie for honor along with Piperno, who train the Davis Cup team between 1991-2001 for 27 consecutive bonds.
Balram was 73 years old, one of the very shy and non-controversial figures in Indian tennis, trained the Davis Cup team in 1989 (South Korea) and 1990 (Japan).
He himself reached Junior Wimbledon and the US Junior who opened the quarter-finals in 1966.
That he always prefers away from the center of attention and working in a proven background of the fact that he had submitted awards for the first time.
He also founded Balram Singh Trust to support a talented junior player.
Balram is a member of the senior selection committee and also leads it in the past.
His children – Ashutosh Singh and Shalini Thakur also played tennis at a good level.
While Ashutosh won a Fenesta citizen and also a reserve player on the side of the Davis Cup, Shalini has played the Fed Cup.
The 59-year-old Piperno also had an impressive CV because he himself was the 1982 Asian Games Silver Medal, was the coach of India’s first Grand Slam winner Mahesh Bhupathi from 1997 to 2003 and also traveled with the legendary Paes Leander.
He is also a coach of the Indian Cup team between 2000 and 2012 and the women’s national team at Asian Games in Busan (2002), Doha (2006) and Guangzhou (2010).
Last year the former Davis Cup coach Nandan Bal has won the Dhyanchand award.