Tennis' national observer Somdev Devvarman insists that he has nothing "personal" against Ankita Raina and his decision to exclude her from the TOPS was based on his assumption that she would not make it to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020
Devvarman
Tennis' national observer Somdev Devvarman insists that he has nothing "personal" against Ankita Raina and his decision to exclude her from the TOPS was based on his assumption that she would not make it to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. In a surprise decision, Ankita was left out of the financial assistance scheme despite being India's top-ranked player. The Sports Ministry included second-highest ranked player Karman Kaur Thandi and Prarthana Thombare apart from seasoned Sania Mirza for Rs.50,000 monthly allowance.
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Four male players were also selected for the stipend. Realising that a mistake has been made by leaving out Ankita, the AITA had later requested Sports Ministry to include Ankita and Divij Sharan in the TOPS. Somdev perhaps forgot that the monthly allowance, announced by the Ministry, was not only for the Tokyo Games preparations but also for athletes who would compete in the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games this year. "I have nothing personal against any player. I constantly feel the responsibility of being extremely careful while recommending government funds to any player, as it is hard earned tax payers money which we as an organisation are obligated to spend wisely," Somdev told when quizzed about his decision.
Ankita Raina
Somdev said Ankita has not shown progress on the Tour. "If you study her ranking graph and results over the last few years you will surely notice that Raina has not yet qualified for the qualifying of a single Grand Slam, let alone get a direct main draw acceptance," he said. "You obviously understand that well over 200 people participate at these events almost solely based on merit alone. So it is my contention that if you are consistently not one of the top 200 players in your sport, you are unlikely to have a special performance at the Olympics.
"Using this as a parameter I felt it was fairly safe to assume that she would be unlikely to qualify for the Olympics where roughly the top 50-60 players are selected to compete in singles," Somdev explained. However, when reminded that monthly allowance was not restricted for just athletes who would go for Olympics but also for Asian Games, Somdev did not reply.
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