Russian role model Maria Sharapova teaches children at a tennis clinic. (AFP)

Parents hoping to make Agassis and Steffi Grafs ? or maybe Federers and Sharapovas ? of their children, beware.

The Bengal Tennis Association (BTA) has sounded a warning about ?bogus claims? by an academy promising ?100 per cent scholarship to train junior players in the US?. What has prompted the sharp volley from BTA is the following claim and climb down:

?(We are the) first in Asia and the only tennis academy outside of the US to arrange 100 per cent scholarships to junior tennis players to study and train in the US. Tennis UNLTD can arrange scholarships for 12 junior players every year to receive 100 per cent scholarship each to train in the US? ? original website content of Tennis UNLTD, urging ?interested persons? to contact its CEO Sangram Banerjee.

?I do not have any formal contract agreement with any university in the US. The trainees can get scholarship on their own merit? ? Sangram Banerjee, in a letter to the general secretary of The Calcutta Gymkhana, which houses his academy.

Taking serious exception to the ?monumental lies?, the parent body of tennis in the state has accused Tennis UNLTD of ?seeking to mislead young aspirants and dupe unsuspecting parents with wrong information and false claims on its website, in newspaper insertions and in its contract documents?.

It has warned kids and parents ?not to fall prey to such bogus claims? that clearly aim to cash in on a current craze among parents to make professional tennis players of talented youngsters.

Banerjee of Tennis UNLTD (208, Rashbehari Avenue, Calcutta 29) had earlier e-mailed Metro, asserting his claim as the ?only person in the whole of Asia/Oceania region who does 100 per cent tennis scholarships for ITF players willing to train and study in the US?. However, when contacted on Wednesday, he admitted he didn?t have any such authority.

BTA honorary secretary Hironmoy Chatterjee described Tennis UNLTD?s scholarship programme as ?a sophisticated fraud? and added that ?no such agency can give guaranteed placement with 100 per cent scholarship in American colleges. Nobody has the right to mislead the (tennis) fraternity like this and we will take strong penal action against the offender.?

Also calling a fault is the national apex body. ?It is very important that you put the exact information on your website. We should not mislead the players,? All India Tennis Association (AITA) development officer Sunil Yajaman wrote to Tennis UNLTD, with a copy to BTA. The state body has asked The Calcutta Gymkhana Club ? an affiliated unit lending its premises for the coaching camp of Tennis UNLTD ? to completely dissociate itself from the ?tainted organisation? and also to substantiate the claims made by Banerjee?s academy.

Gymkhana secretary Amiya Bhattacharyya (in a letter dated August 14, 2004) sought ?evidences? from Banerjee on a string of such claims. The notice slapped on Tennis UNLTD demanded proof of its authority to process tennis scholarships for US universities in the Asia/Oceania region and of Banerjee?s ATP/USTP ranking, besides particulars of its trainees sent to the US on scholarships.

?None of the queries was answered with any degree of conviction in his reply to the Calcutta Gymkhana general secretary (letter dated August 17, 2004 from which, the extract above is printed),? said the BTA secretary.

Now, parents have started calling Banerjee?s bluff. ?My son?s tennis skills have been honed by Jaidip Mukerjea and Akhtar Ali at the South Club and he has secured 100 per cent scholarship completely on his own merit. Tennis UNLTD had simply suggested names of a few websites of US institutions, which don?t have any agent here. I have asked Banerjee to take my son?s name off his homepage,? said Amitava Mondal, father of Arka Mondal.

Banerjee had claimed on his website he had trained Arka and orchestrated the youngster?s trip to Texas Southern University last year with 100 per cent scholarship.