Ninety minutes behind schedule time, the tall, dark, handsome man stepped out of a gleaming Mercedes. And for the next two hours in the swanky precints of the Royal Palms & Country Club, Vijay Amritraj proved why he is a master at giving discourses in How to win friends and influence people.

Mothers who had come with young tennis hopefuls, were floored by the Amritraj charm. The man willingly and smilingly posing with young and old and, most importantly, making them feel important than feeling important himself. One lost count of the number of times he lifted his plate for a bite, only to find an inconsiderate request for an autograph or pose for a photograph. And not once did he getannoyed. The charm was on overdrive as usual as he obliged one and all with his trademark smile streaking across his scrubbed, ebony-hued face.

Accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Lions Club of Andheri, Amritraj gave an extempore speech on the sport that was closes to his heart and that of the audience.

He called for a ``commissioner'' to look into Indian sports administration, urged for a joint effort from coaches, parents, administrators, government, sponsor in ensuring that the child gets the very best.

He explained the rewards of playing tennis at the highest level. ``There will be thousands of doctors, engineers and accountants, but there is only one Sampras or Krishnan.''

``There is potential (among Indian kids playing tennis). I have seen in recent tournaments abroad that Indian children having better stroke production than the foreign players beating them. But individual effort is not enough, it has to be a group endeavor,'' he said.

Tennis has not changed much sinceIndependence, he said, in the sense that the potential champions are still there, but not materialising. ``Between the ages of 10 and 13 we are outstanding. What happens between 16-20? A few titles won, and contentment sets in.''

He recalled the time when he was 18 and on his first trip to the US. ``I played in 18 tournament in a row and lost in the first round in 17 of them. I would be out of the singles every Monday and from the doubles with (brother) Anand every Wednesday,'' he grinned.

But the important thing was to keep at it. ``Next year, I was in the top 10 of the same tournaments,'' said Vijay, who also accepted the Lifetime Award on behalf of Anand as well.

For harassed tennis parents, he had the example of the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena. Their father's struggle against all odds bore fruits when the sisters made the final of the same tournament last week. ``That is a bigger achievement than Pete Sampras finishing No 1 for six successive years.''

From being a player to businessman,from starring in a James Bond movie to doing badminton commentary with Sanjay Sharma at Singapore, Amritraj admitted that tennis still gave him the greatest pleasure.