MUMBAI, July 17: The All India Tennis Association (AITA) today ordered its Chennai and Ahmedabad units not to stage the Challenger Series allotted to an individual or offer any assistance to him by the Association of Tennis Players (ATP).

The decision to boycott the total $ 50,000 prize money worth international tournaments was taken by the AITA Executive Committee here and was supported by the Gujarat Tennis Association and Chennai Tennis Association.

AITA Secretary, Ramesh Desai, said after the meeting that AITA had applied much in advance for a series of five ATP Challengers, but, to its dismay, the events have been entrusted to former AITA Secretary, PL Reddy, now operating as a tennis organiser in his private capacity.

ATP, by ignoring the rightful claims of AITA, has reopened the old wounds of early 90s when ATP tennis boss, Vijay Amritraj, used to sidetrack AITA and yield to Reddy's request of staging ATP events. That was the fallout of Amritraj's running battle with AITA'S present President, RK Khanna.

Since the beginning of the year, the question of conducting the Challenger tournament has been engaging the attention of AITA, Desai said and added that ATP has snubbed them despite the fact that the AITA position was explained in specific terms that under its constitution no tennis event could be conducted in the country on the courts of any of its affiliated units without prior sanction.

The Executive Committee deliberated for more than an hour before coming to a unanimous decision that the two ATP Challenger series, allotted to PL Reddy, will not be permitted.

ATP however, has granted AITA one of its Challenger tourney. It is scheduled in Mumbai, in November, but in case AITA sticks to its decision to ban Reddy's quota, then ATP will be forced to withdraw the whole series.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.