Sumit Nagal, 14 years young and National sub-junior tennis titlist, says he despises fellow player A.K. Pardhasarathy with a fervour reserved for sworn enemies. “He plays so well that I'm going to crack his skull open one of these days,” Sumit hisses, his artificial smile doing little to pacify Pardhasarathy — a semifinalist in the junior Nationals — who decides for the sake of safety to drop back from our party of five. We are heading to a vacant tennis court at the Madras Cricket Club for a photo-op as Pardhasarathy falls behind, matching his stride with Mohit Mayur — the newly-crowned junior champion and the tail of our peloton.
Not ten minutes have passed since Mohit won his first National junior title, but already the courts, which were humming this past week with the dissonance of young tennis players (and their inseparable parents), appear vacant. Soon, in the matter of an hour, the slower, heavier, fancier treads of club members and the social and physical necessity of their evening hits will come to occupy the void. Between then and now lies the hour of these greenhorns, allowing them space to revel in the momentary glow of their recent spoils — and possibly also plan whose skull requires the soundest cracking, if at all clouts to the cranium matter in the crawl up the rankings.
European training
Mohit, who turned 18 recently, has been around the junior circuit for a while and has trained — with help from Tamil Nadu Tennis Association — at Spain's famed Sanchez Casal Academy and in Germany. Now preparing himself for a string of ITF Futures tournaments in the months ahead, he says his European training was immensely educative.
“It helped not just my tennis but also made me aware of how the tennis circuit functions,” Mohit says, now appearing a little less uncomfortable in talking to nosey parker journalists than he was before the overseas experience. Mohit's improved approach to the game was apparent in the almost perfect National junior tournament he played — he did not drop a set on the way to the title. There was, critically speaking, just one minor blip. “I had one tough match in the Nationals against him; he hits them really big,” Mohit points to Pardhasarathy, the 15-year-old Hyderabadi southpaw, whose fearless attacking game impressed even the most cynical examiners of India's hollow junior tennis scene.
Pardhasarathy turns to Mohit and breaks into a grin, “That's how I always play. I like going for my shots.” In 2010, battling dysentery and dehydration, the gangly Pardhasarathy won a sapping quarterfinal against second-seeded Arjun Khade. This year, he held set-point against the eventual champion in the semifinal before losing in two tight sets.
“It would have been different had I clinched the first set tie-breaker. But I hope I'm able to beat him soon,” Pardhasarathy says, still casting a watchful eye on the twirling racquet in Sumit's hand a few paces ahead.
Sumit, meanwhile, is marching to the beat of his own drummer, muttering about the lack of competition he faced in the sub-junior leg of the Nationals. At 14, he is the youngest and shortest of the trio. But that does little to prevent the Delhi-based counterpuncher from being loaded with the most aggro, both on and off court. In the junior category, where he despatched at least a few players several years his senior, Sumit extended the top-seed Vishesh Sinha to a third-set tie-break before losing a heart-breaking quarterfinal. The loss, however, seems to have done everything but deflate him.
“All these guys are older than me. I know I have some catching up to do.” May the Lord help his opponents when he does.
