In tennis, nationalistic fervour has always been in short supply. More so for Indian fans. While the exploits of the Amritraj brothers, the Krishnans, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza over the years have always been appreciated and celebrated, an average fan more readily identifies with a John McEnroe, a Pete Sampras, a Steffi Graf or a Roger Federer.
The year 2014 has been no different. Rafael Nadal’s injury woes, Federer’s resurgence which included two Masters titles, reaching the Wimbledon final and a return to world no. 2 in the rankings, and the emergence of the next rung in both men’s and women’s tennis — the likes of Marin Cilic, Stanislas Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep — were the most talked-about topics.
These came even as Sania Mirza’s golden year, the impressive fight that India showed in the Davis Cup against Serbia and the rise of promising youngsters like Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina were warmly applauded.
However, for Indian tennis in particular, it has been a mixed year. Notable achievements have come in the form of Sania Mirza’s performance — the US Open mixed doubles title, doubles trophy at the World Tour Finals and medals at the Incheon Asian Games — and Indians winning three of the five Challengers held at home — Yuki Bhambri, Somdev Devvarman and Saketh Myneni.
On the other hand
But the country’s fortunes in singles have nose-dived. Devvarman and Bhambri, after good starts to the year, when they won a Challenger each in India, have seen their rankings plummet. This has resulted in no Indian getting a direct entry into the only ATP tour event in India, the Aircel Chennai Open. Even in doubles, India is still dependent on 41-year-old Leander Paes to shore up the team.
“We need a much-bigger pool of players,” said India’s Davis Cup captain Anand Amritraj. “Ramkumar has come along very well and probably should start playing Davis Cup. But what’s worrying is that there aren’t many 17 and 18-year-olds showing promise. Guys like Sasikumar Mukund are there, but we need more.”
Good sign In this backdrop, India, for the first time, welcoming five Challenger tournaments this year was a good sign. However, with sponsorships hard to come by, the number of entry-level tournaments ($10,000 and $15,000 Futures) have dropped. A way to finance tournaments is to be found at the earliest, especially, in light of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) recommending that, from 2016, all $10,000 tournaments be upgraded to $15,000s and $15,000s to $25,000 and so on.
Towards the end of the year, the two high-profile tennis leagues — Mahesh Bhupathi’s International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) and Vijay Amritraj’s Champions Tennis League (CTL) — were branded as ones that will help increase the Indian imprint in international tennis. They brought top international stars like Federer, Novak Djokovic, Venus Williams and Agnieszka Radwanska in close proximity to Indian players and fans.
While it no doubt helps in inspiring and educating young players, India needs to embrace international tennis at a more competitive level by organising more ATP and WTA Tour events.
