Mysore, Sep 2 (IANS): The Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academies (MBTA) Monday announced the launch of their latest academy, the 36th, in the country here.

The Mysore chapter of the MBTA will be housed at the Raghuveer Tennis Academy and at the helm of the coaching sessions will be N.P. Raghuveer, who was one of the top Indian players in the '80s and has spent the last 20 years coaching students at a prestigious Tennis Academy in the US.

Currently, Raghuveer coaches some of the top junior players in the country who participate at the AITA and the ITF levels. He will take on the role of head coach at the academy and will be joined by a coaching staff of six coaches who will assist him.

This academy will also aim to be a high-performance centre, given its access to quality infrastructure of eight clay courts and residential accommodation for potential students.

Arjuna Award winner and double Asian Games gold medalist, CEO of MBTA Gaurav Natekar said: "Over the years, Karnataka has produced some great champions who have performed well on both the national and international circuits."

"Given the growing interest in the sport in Karnataka, we strongly felt there was no better place than Mysore to set up the thirty-sixth chapter of the academy."

MBTA was founded in 2006 by 12-time Grand Slam winner Mahesh Bhupathi with the objective of imparting professional, world-class training (both practical and theoretical) and highly specialised coaching to youngsters of all age groups.

MBTA was also developed to increase the accessibility of tennis by ensuring that people across all socio-economic groups have the opportunity to experience the joy of the sport.

Over the years, MBTA has established itself as India's premier tennis academy imparting international quality coaching through a team of 90 professionally trained coaches to over 10,000 children across various levels.

Mahesh Bhupathi, managing director of MBTA, said: “The team at the MBTA works tirelessly, conceiving, developing and reinventing standardized coaching programs and events for children."

“Programs when implemented by our experienced coaches feed into the ecosystem of developing strong tennis talent in the country. Building on the success of our last 35 academies, I am sure that this academy will be no exception. Though this is a milestone for us, it is only a sign of bigger and better things to come tennis' way.”