Zeeshan Ali resigns as Davis Cup coach for Indian tennis team

Zeeshan Ali announced his resignation as the coach of the Indian Davis Cup tennis team on Wednesday.

“I’ve been coach of the Davis Cup team for 11 years now,” Zeeshan, who had replaced Nandan Bal as coach of India’s Davis Cup team in 2013, told PTI.

“To top it all, I was also the captain of the Davis Cup, the historic tie that we played against Pakistan in Pakistan earlier this year. I don’t think there is any such person from any country who has had the privilege and honour of doing all these three things,” the 54-year-old Zeeshan said.

India were promoted to the World Group I after blanking Pakistan 4-0 in the play-offs in Islamabad in February.

India’s next Davis Cup assignment is an away World Group I tie against Sweden in Stockholm on September 14-15. The All India Tennis Association (AITA) is yet to announce Zeeshan Ali’s replacement.

Zeeshan Ali, who represented India at the Seoul 1988 Olympics, said that he would now focus on the development of the National Tennis Centre (NTC).

"My whole focus is on NTC. You will be hearing about that also in the coming weeks as well; about the plans that the AITA has as far as the NTC is concerned,” Zeeshan Ali said.

The NTC is an academy in New Delhi to improve tennis at the grassroots level in India.

“So, that will require a lot more of my time and focus into making sure that the programme runs properly…and starts to produce the next generation of champions and that's where my focus and energy is going to be now," he added.

Zeeshan Ali is a former junior world No. 2 player and was ranked 126th on the ATP Tour at the age of 18. He bagged 14 ITF junior tournaments and reached the semi-finals of singles at Wimbledon Juniors when he was 16. However, a back injury ended his playing career when he was just 25 and since then he has been involved in coaching.

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