He keeps churning out success stories in Indian men’s tennis with ease. Far from the madding crowd, the 53-year-old Canjeevaran Venkatrao Nagaraj has been training and grooming tennis talent with such diligence that he is now the rare record-holder of producing four Davis Cuppers (Susheel Narla, Punna Vishal, J. Vishnuvardhan and Saketh Myneni), Asian Games mixed doubles gold medallist (Saketh) and five senior national champions besides others.
Yet, like all those who stay away from the media glare and are more focussed on the job at hand, Nagaraj too is a victim of a typical syndrome in the State capital where the powers-that-be are immediately hooked on to the coaches of high-profile stars but fail to take a conservative look at gentlemen such as this untiring tennis coach.
The latest triumph of Vishnuvardhan as national tennis champion in Delhi last Friday is another reminder that the assembly line of champions has not dried up.
And this remarkable story of triumph over adversity has been unfolding daily at the School of Power Tennis Academy at RRC (Secunderabad).
Nagaraj insists that there is no bigger joy for him than seeing his student win a national title. “That is the biggest motivating factor. It is a different issue that I am not getting the kind of recognition that may be due to me. But again, I am too small to run around to garner support in the corridors of power,” says the coach, who quit his HAL job 23 years ago to take up tennis coaching.
All that Nagaraj got in terms of recognition was the relatively obscure Farkunda Ali Khan Award, given by the AP Lawn Tennis Association, for the best coach. The big question remains – doesn’t he deserve more especially when some coaches were given huge cash incentives by the Telangana State government?
