Akhtar Ali born 5 July 1939, is a former tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 player of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. He was the member of the Indian team that reached the final of Davis Cup

Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...

 in 1967

1967 in sports

1967 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.-Alpine skiing:* The first Alpine Skiing World Cup is organised for the three ski events: Downhill, Slalom and Giant Slalom:** Men's overall champion: Jean-Claude Killy, France...

. He was a member of the Indian Davis Cup team continuously from 1958 to 1964. Helping win the Eastern region in 1961 Davis Cup

1961 Davis Cup

The 1961 Davis Cup was the 50th edition of the most important tournament between national teams in men's tennis. 42 teams would enter the competition, 28 in the Europe Zone, 7 in the Americas Zone, and 7 in the Eastern Zone....

.
Former Captain of Indian Davis cup in 2008.

Later he turned to coaching and coached the players like Ramesh Krishnan

Ramesh Krishnan

Ramesh Krishnan is a tennis coach and former professional tennis player from India. As a junior player in the late-1970s, he won the boy's singles titles at both Wimbledon and the French Open. He went on to reach three Grand Slam quarter-finals in the 1980s, and was part of the Indian team which...

, Vijay Amritraj

Vijay Amritraj

Vijay Amritraj is a former Indian tennis player, sports commentator and actor.Amritraj was born in Chennai, India to Maggie Dhairyam and Robert Amritraj. He and his brothers, Anand Amritraj and Ashok Amritraj, were among the first Indians to play in top-flight international tour tennis...

, Anand Amritraj

Anand Amritraj

Anand Amritraj is a former Indian tennis player and businessman.Anand Amritraj and his brothers, Vijay Amritraj and Ashok Amritraj, were among the first Indians to play in top-flight international tour tennis. In 1976, the team of Anand and Vijay was semi-finalists in the Wimbledon men's doubles...

 and Leander Paes

Leander Paes

Leander Adrian Paes, pronounced pās, is an Indian professional tennis player who currently features in the doubles events in the ATP tour and the Davis Cup tournament...

. He is father of Zeeshan Ali

Zeeshan Ali

Zeeshan Ali is a former tennis player from India, who competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, where he was defeated in the second round by the number ten seed from Switzerland, Jakob Hlasek....

, a former Indian national tennis champion

Champion

A champion is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition.There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, and even further divisions at one or more of these levels, as in soccer. Their champions...

.

Post career

Former Davis Cup coach Akhtar Ali will start a junior development programme at the South Club from Friday. The trainees will be divided into three categories — under-14, under-16 and under-18. Free coaching will be provided to the state’s best players.

Awards

Winner of the Arjuna Awardees in Lawn Tennis in 2000.
Dronacharya award 2001.

Allsport Management, a city-based sports management company along with Ontrack Systems Ltd., an ISO 9001:2000 global IT & ITES company, will present GOLDEN AKHTAR, a programme to felicitate Akhtar Ali on his 50th year of yeoman service to Indian Tennis on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at ITC Sonar Bangla Sheraton Hotel & Tower in Kolkata.

External links

• Davis Cup website profile
• ZoomInfo, but a good source for information.
• Bengal Tennis - The Bengal Tennis Association is the governing body of West Bengal's Lawn Tennis activities. West Bengal has always been a super power among India's tennis playing states. Winner of several National Tennis Championships, Bengal has produced many wonderful players like Akhtar Ali, Joydeep Mukherjee, Jishan Ali, Leander Paes etc.