Vijay Amritraj is an earlier tennis player from India, sports analyst and actor. Vijay Amritraj is considered among the greatest tennis players to have represented India. Vijay Amritraj has pompously represented India in various international Tennis events and got significant success. His father`s name is Robert Amritraj and his mother is Maggie Dhairyam. He appeared in a Grand Slam event for the first time in 1970. He and his brother Anand Amritraj were among the first Indians to play in top-flight international tour Tennis. They together reached the doubles semi-finals of Wimbledon in 1976.

Early life of Vijay Amritraj
Vijay Amritraj was born in Chennai in December, 1953. His parent"s names are Maggie Dhairyam and Robert Amritraj. He has two brothers, Anand Amritraj and Ashok Amritraj, who were also global tennis players. He did his education in Chennai and later graduated from Loyola College, Chennai.

Career of Vijay Amritraj
Apart from Doubles, Vijay Amritraj also showed great performances in Singles. He reached the quarter finals of two Grand Slam events in 1973; however he could not go further. He was defeated by the eventual champion of Wimbledon, Jan Kodes in five sets in 1973 and Ken Rosewall defeated him in the same year`s U.S. Open. However, he stunned the world in the US Open in 1973, by defeating the Tennis legendary, Rod Laver earlier in the tournament. He once again proved his talent in front of the world of Tennis by beating another Tennis legend, Bjorn Borg at Forest Hills in 1974. After a gap of 7 years, he again reached the quarter finals of a Grand Slam in 1981. However, this time he was defeated by legendary Tennis player, Jimmy Connors in five sets. Amritraj beat Jimmy Connors 5 times in 11 matches.

Though, he had continuously reached the quarter-finals or semi-finals of Grand Slam events on a regular basis, it seemed that Vijay Amritraj was not physically fit enough to win a five-setter match. In fact, his incapability to win the five-setters proved to be the major deterrent in his career. He was a natural grass-court player and his game was more in the chip-and- charge, and serve-and-volley mould. In spite of losing most of the important matches in his career, the competitive spirit of Vijay Amritraj has always won him admirers. After beating the legendary Tennis players like Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg, Amritraj defeated yet another all time Tennis great, John McEnroe at Cincinnati in 1984. He reached his career highest World Ranking of No.16 in men`s singles in July, 1984.

Apart from playing extraordinarily in the prestigious Grand Slam tournaments, Vijay Amritraj also gave outstanding performances for India, in the Davis Cup. He was the captain of the Indian Davis Cup team for most of the late 1970s and 1980s. India became successful to reach the finals of Davis Cup in 1974 and 1987, under the leadership of Vijay Amritraj. He won a do-or-die five set match against Martin Jaite of Argentina, during India`s run to the final in 1987. His career Single statistics stood at 384-296, when he retired from professional Tennis.

Awards of Vijay Amritraj
Amritraj won a total of 16 singles titles and 13 doubles title throughout his career and was also awarded the Padma Sri in 1983.

Filmography of Vijay Amritraj
Amritraj also had a brief acting career. His most notable appearance is probably as the MI6 agent Vijay in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. He also appeared briefly in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) as a star ship officer. Following are the list of movies in which he has acted:


•Octopussy (1983) - Vijay
•Nine Deaths of the Ninja (1985) - Rankin
•Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - Starship Captain
•Of God and Kings (2015) - Duke Bora Swain

Personal life of Vijay Amritraj
Vijay Amritraj lives in California with wife Shyamala and sons Prakash Amritraj and Vikram. His son Prakash Amritraj and nephew Stephen Amritraj are also professional tennis players. Vijay Amritraj was appointed a United Nations ambassador for peace. He has been raising awareness on the issues of drugs and HIV/AIDS and in raising funds to fight the spread of AIDS universal. Vijay Amritraj founded The Vijay Amritraj Foundation in 2006.