LTAM confirm interest in Suresh

Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) have confirmed that they are interested in signing former player Suresh Menon to head the national team’s high performance programme.

LTAM secretary Rahizam Rahim said the national body are in the midst of working out a possible contract with Suresh who is vastly experienced at the international level.

“Yes, LTAM are interested in bringing Suresh in. We are currently negotiating with him and there are things we have to look at such as his requirements as well as the training programme he has in mind for the national setup,” said Rahizam.

“Suresh has spent 21 years working with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is currently doing consultation work for ITF.

“He was the national head coach in the 1990s, during which I myself had the chance to work with him.

“We believe he has the credibility to come in as a high performance coach and his experience will be an asset.”

Should Suresh agree to joining, Rahizam added that LTAM will likely have to cover his salary out of their own coffers considering the lack of government support at the moment due to the various budget cuts.

“The National Sports Council (NSC) are not able to help us at this moment.

“We are depending on our president (Mirzan Mahathir) to secure funding for us to cover our operational costs going forward.”