Vijay Amritraj (born 14 December 1953) is an Indian sports commentator, actor, and also retired professional tennis player who belongs to Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s 4th highest civilian honour, in 1983. In 2022, he was honoured for his contributions to tennis in London by the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Tennis Federation.

Personal Life

Vijay was born in Madras. He has two sisters, Anand Amritraj and Ashok Amritraj, who were also transnational tennis players. After playing his first Grand Prix event in 1970, Amritraj achieved his first success in mates in 1973 when he reached the quarterfinals at two Grand Slam events. At Wimbledon, he lost in five sets to the eventual champion Jan Kodeš and latterly that summer at the US Open, lost to Ken Rosewall after having beaten Rod Laver two rounds before. On 9 February 2001, Vijay was appointed a United Nations minister for peace. He has been raising mindfulness on the issues of medicines and HIV/ AIDS and has raised finances to fight the spread of AIDS worldwide. Vijay Amritraj innovated The Vijay Amritraj Foundation in 2006.

Career

Vijay Amritraj has also pursued an acting career. His stylish known part is presumably as the MI6 intelligence operative Vijay in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. He also appeared compactly in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home(1986) as an unnamed star ship captain. He was also a regular character in the NBC television series The Last firmament and the Yakov Smirnoff comedy What a Country, as well as a guest star on colourful TV shows similar to Hart to Hart. He has since gone on to come a sports judge, has been a judge at the Miss Universe pageant, and has developed a multimedia business. Amritraj also hosts a talk show named confines with Vijay Amritraj broadcast on CNN-IBN.