tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player. He was a member of the Indian Davis Cup team continuously from 1958 to 1964 and captain of Indian Davis Cup in 2008.
Later he turned to coaching and coached the players like
Ramesh Krishnan
Ramesh Krishnan (born 5 June 1961) is a tennis coach and former professional tennis player from India. As a junior player in the late 1970s, he won the singles titles at both, Wimbledon and the French Open. He went on to reach three Grand Sla ...
,
Vijay Amritraj
Vijay Amritraj (born 14 December 1953) is an Indian sports commentator, actor and retired professional tennis player from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian honour, in 1983.In 2022, he was honored for his cont ...
,
Anand Amritraj
Anand Amritraj (Tamil: ஆனந்த் அம்ரித்ராஜ்; born 20 March 1951) is a former Indian tennis player and businessman. He along with brother Vijay Amritraj led India into the 1974 Davis Cup finals against South Afric ...
and
Leander Paes
Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men' ...
. He was father of
Zeeshan Ali
Zeeshan Ali (born 1 January 1970) is a former Indian Davis Cup player who also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. The right-hander reached his highest singles ATP ranking on 12 December 1988, when he became the number 126 of th ...
, a former Indian national tennis
champion
A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') 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, an ...
Akhtar Ali started a junior development programme at the South Club. The trainees were divided into three categories — under-14, under-16 and under-18. Free coaching was provided to the state’s best players.
Akhtar Ali died on 7 February 2021, aged 81.Indian tennis great Akhtar Ali passes away /ref>
Awards
Winner of the Arjuna Awardees in Lawn Tennis in 2000.
Allsport Management, a city-based sports management company along with Ontrack Systems Ltd., an ISO 9001:2000 global IT & ITES company, presented GOLDEN AKHTAR, a programme to felicitate Akhtar Ali on his 50th year of yeoman service to Indian Tennis on Wednesday, 21 September 2005 at ITC Sonar Bangla Sheraton Hotel & Tower in Kolkata.