Padma Shri Vijay Amritraj

Vijay Amritraj is an Indian retired professional tennis player, sports commentator and actor from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-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. On July 20, 2024, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. Vijay Amritraj partnered with his brother Anand at the 2000 Wimbledon Championships.

After playing his first Grand Prix event in 1970, Amritraj achieved his first success in singles 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.  He beat Björn Borg in the second round of the US Open in 1974, losing to Rosewall in the quarterfinals. In 1979, he lost in the second round of Wimbledon to defending champion Borg. He reached his career-high ranking in singles of world No. 16 in July 1980. In 1981, he reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. He beat John McEnroe in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters in 1984. Overall, he had five career wins over Jimmy Connors in their eleven matches. Amritraj was part of the India Davis Cup team that reached the finals in 1974 and 1987. 

He has also pursued an acting career. His best-known role is probably as the MI6 intelligence operative Vijay in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. He also appeared briefly in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) as starship captain Joel Randolph. He was a regular character in the NBC TV series The Last Precinct and the Yakov Smirnoff comedy What a Country!, as well as a guest star on various television shows such as Hart to Hart. He has since gone on to become a sports commentator, has been a judge at the Miss Universe pageant, and has developed a multimedia business. He also hosts a talk show named Dimensions with Vijay Amritraj, broadcast on CNN-IBN. In 2001, he was appointed a United Nations Messenger of Peace. He has been raising awareness on the issues of drugs and HIV/AIDS, and has raised funds to fight the spread of AIDS worldwide. He founded The Vijay Amritraj Foundation in 2006.

He was born on 14 December 1953 in Madras, India, to a Tamil Christian Nadar family, his parents being Maggie Dhairyam and Robert Amritraj.  His brothers, Anand Amritraj and Ashok Amritraj, were also international tennis players. He resides in Southern California with his family. One of his sons, Prakash Amritraj, is also a professional tennis player.

*Collected from the public domain

*Updated on 27/10/2025