Bhubaneswar, April 22: Odia player Dilip Mohanty is going places in the world of tennis. Not only has he coached achievers, the 37-year-old ranks first nationally in the seniors' category.

Hailing from a village in Kendrapada, Mohanty has lived the 'been there done that' life in the tennis circuit. He picked up the racquet at the age of seven in Guwahati where his father was a pitch curator. He was spotted and coached by Kamaljit Singh in Guwahati. He has won many titles and participated in prestigious events of the International Tennis federation (ITF).

At the International level, Mohanty won the Malaysian ITF Senior Open 2015 held in Kuala Lumpur in the +35 men's doubles and runners-up at the 5th Pattaya ITF Senior Open in Thailand that took place in February in the same category. He represented India as captain in ITF Senior Italia Cup held at Florida, USA. He also won International Senior Championship in +35 men's singles. Among various titles in junior and sub-junior levels in the national circuit, he has been a semi finalist in the National Games in 1999.

"Despite not getting much sponsorship, I worked hard because of my passion for the sport. Now I dream to groom players who can win laurels at the highest level of the game," said Mohanty, who has been coaching for 18 years. He has founded the Neelachal Tennis Academy in Delhi where he trains youngsters.

Mohanty is also a certified tester of PTR, USA (PTR is largest recognised tennis coaching university in the world and in charge of training and testing coaches all over the world). Mohanty was also awarded Coach of the Year award by PTR, USA, in 2012. He has worked as a high performance coach of Hong Kong Tennis Association in 2010-2012 where he used to train national academy students including Davis cuppers and top juniors of the country.

"One of my best memories is being appointed as a hitting partner for Hong Kong Tennis Classic 2011 to play with John Mcenroe, Stefan Edberg, Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki," said Mohanty.

Some of his students include Rubal Shandilya who represented India in Junior Davis Cup and Junior World Championships, Ratnika Batra, former junior and senior national champion and world number 20 in juniors and other national and international champions such as Garvit Batra, Anurag Nenwani Amarnath Arora, Khushi Sachdeva and Dushyant Deswal.

Mohanty is currently India number one in +35 men's singles and +35 men's doubles. His ITF ranking in singles is 169 now while last year he was at 86.

"I'm in Delhi but I keep a track of performances by Odia players. They have a lot of promise," said Mohanty.