Leander Paes, Vijay Amritraj & Richard Evans inducted into Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame | ATP Tour

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Paes, Amritraj & Evans inducted into Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame

Agassi, Evert, Navratilova amongst legends in attendance

July 21, 2024

Leander Paes, Vijay Amritraj and Richard Evans had been inducted into the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame on Saturday night in Newport, the place household, mates and followers packed into the well-known horseshoe court docket on the venue for a memorable night.

“It’s my biggest honour to be on this stage with not solely these legends of the sport, [but] individuals who have impressed me each single day of my life,” Paes stated. “Not as a result of you may have gained Grand Slams, not as a result of you may have formed the world of our sport. However each single certainly one of these folks has formed the world that we dwell in. I wish to thanks a lot for giving this Indian boy hope.”

Paes and Amritraj turned the primary Indian — and Asian — males to earn induction into the unique group as a participant and contributor, respectively. The pair have been trailblazers for Indian tennis and had been proud to symbolize their nation.

“Enjoying for 1.4 billion folks might both be stress, or it might be wind inside your wings,” Paes stated. “I’d prefer to thank each single certainly one of my countrymen who supported me, who stood by me by all of the ups and downs, and we’ve been by just a few. However you all had been the inspiration, you all had been the help. You had been even the power to information me by once I didn’t imagine.

“However as my father at all times stated to me, ‘If you happen to imagine in your self, you’re employed onerous, you be passionate, not solely to win prize cash and never solely to win trophies, however you do this to encourage the world’.”

Amritraj was a high participant, who reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals at 19 and gained 28 tour-level titles between singles and doubles. He was as soon as a boy fighting lung issues in India, and now he has cemented his title on the worldwide stage endlessly.

“My expensive mates, I’m humbled and honoured to affix this unbelievable and unique group, which has introduced glory to our sport. Our sport has given me the whole lot in life. It has taken me locations I by no means thought I’d go,” Amritraj stated. “It has allowed me to fulfill folks I by no means thought I’d meet and it has given me extra issues than I might have doable imagined. It can at all times be part of our lives and at all times carry households, communities and international locations collectively. Greater than anything, I’m completely satisfied to say, India Day is again in New England.”

Andre Agassi and Chris Evert pose for a selfie forward of the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame induction ceremony.”>

Evans has spent greater than 60 years chronicling the journeys of many individuals on the stage in Newport in addition to many extra tennis icons all through the world. Saturday night was his second to face on the other aspect of proceedings.

“It has been an extended journey. I want I had time to inform you all of the names of all the nice tennis writers I’ve written with in press bins around the globe like Rex Bellamy and naturally Bud Collins, who’s of this parish,” Evans stated. “Bud was unbelievable and Allison Danzig and Al Laney as writers of a earlier age in America all used their expertise to put in writing about tennis, which is a sport [that] must be promoted at each stage and written about with as a lot expertise and elegance and enthusiasm and keenness as these of us who love the game might muster, so thanks very a lot for greeting me right here at the moment and I hope to see you down the highway.”

There have been a number of different Corridor of Famers on stage, together with former No. 1 within the PIF ATP Rankings Andre Agassi, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Stan Smith and Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame Honourary President Kim Clijsters.

Navratilova stood on the dais to introduce Paes, with whom he gained two main titles in combined doubles.

“He was an artist on the court docket, an incredible athlete, a virtuoso,” Navratilova stated. “He wielded the tennis racquet like an orchestra conductor wield the baton. Leander, it was really my honour to play towards you. I loved it much more once I performed with you. You’ve got performed your loved ones proud, you may have performed our sport proud and most of all you may have performed India proud.”

Leander Paes, Richard Evans and Vijay Amritraj on the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame induction ceremony.”>