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SPORTS:
TENNIS
Double
Faults
Indian
tennis offers more than a million dollars in prize money but home heroes
are hard to come by
By
Sharda Ugra
Crunch
these numbers: in the space of four weeks in December-January, tennis
events in India offered a total of close to $1.3 million in prize money.
In the rest of the 48 weeks in 2000, there was $160,000 to be won by men
and $115,000 by women on the Indian tennis circuit through lower-level
international ranking events. These add up to approximately $1.5 million
or more than Rs 7 crore in prize money over a 12-month period. No other
Asian country holds such a large range of international tournaments, only
five other nations in the world offer more.
 |
| The
country's No. 2 Harsh Mankad faces a rough road ahead on the men's
pro circuit |
But the contradictions
begin right there. The two big events on the Indian tennis calendar-the
World Doubles Championships in Bangalore and the Gold Flake Open in Chennai-are
privately promoted and driven by big names. These megamoney events have
as much relevance to the ground realities of Indian tennis as opera has
to nautanki. Except in pro tennis, there is a road which leads from the
low to the high and today, no Indian looks capable of attempting that
journey.
Out of 23
Indian men ranked on the ATP computer, only one, Leander Paes, is ranked
in the top 200. The next Indian after Paes (188) is Harsh Mankad (563).
Among women, only Nirupama Vaidyanathan is ranked in the top 200. In a
sport getting younger, the average age of the Indian Davis Cup team is
25. As a junior, Paes was once ranked world No.1 while today, the country's
highest-ranked junior is 17-year-old Sunil Kumar, who is 83rd among world
juniors.
Longtime
coach Akhtar Ali laughs, "God help Indian tennis." Davis Cup
non-playing captain Ramesh Krishnan, whose job it is to shepherd the national
team out of the Asia-Oceania zone and into the elite 16-team World Group,
believes there is a reason to be concerned: "Our tournaments may
become breeding grounds for foreigners who come and pick up prize money
and experience." In 2000, out of the 14 international tournaments
for men, only three Indians won singles titles.
Despite
Bhupathi-Paes' ripping run in 1999, despite the dollar signs hanging around
the Indian circuit-a change masterminded three years ago by scrapping
the domestic circuit in favour of lower-level world ranking events-there
are indications that a severe drought is coming. "What's happening
to Indian tennis is like what happened to industry. Our country has opened
up to international competition and is at this stage being overwhelmed
by it," says Rajan Kashyap, secretary of the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis
Association. Ramesh believes that the current generation will struggle
with the sudden increase in world ranking events, "These may not
be beneficial to players who are already 24 or 25 and still trying to
break through. We are looking at 16- and 18-year-olds to make use of them."
In a sport that defines itself by teenager burnout, 24 or 25 is already
over the hill. Ramesh says, "There is no use of an 18-year-old trying
to be junior national champion-that is meaningless today. He has to be
beating seniors comfortably. Time is precious in pro tennis. If you are
out for three months you have lost chances."
Vece Paes,
who has worn many hats in Indian tennis, as parent, tournament promoter
and medical man, thinks Indians should start earlier. He says, "The
reason we struggle is because our 14- and 15-year-olds do not get early
exposure to international competition. They need to be playing globally
six months of the year. You have to choose early-whether you want to play
junior Grand Slams and graduate through that route or ignore the juniors
and prepare to break into the pros. There is no other way." It costs,
he says, close to Rs 1 lakh a month per player and if there is any dithering
about costs, then there is going to be no competitive tennis player.
"Previously
it was the princes who were patrons," says Kashyap, "then the
parents and now, as the money needed is so huge, it has to be associations
or bodies." The money is available but can it be coaxed away at least
in part from the razzle-dazzle events towards more mundane pursuits? Mahesh
Bhupathi dismisses criticism of poor use of resources, saying the Indian
circuit has crossed the million dollar mark only this year. The situation,
he admits, is far from ideal, "You can't look for champions, you
have to groom them. Give the system time. You need to have at least 20
Indians travelling the world with coaches and then you will be lucky if
you get one person who makes it to the top." That one person has
to have all the technical and physical qualities required of modern pros-a
big serve, at least one big shot and over and above all, the physical
build and the fitness to go the distance, week after week, year after
year. It requires a rethink of methods in both trainees and trainers.
AITA Secretary
Anil Khanna says the processes are being put in place. "We have begun
to conduct international standard programmes to train coaches and in the
first quarter of next year, we should have coaches working and travelling
with teams full time. We have to get quality from the quantity ... we
need to offer enough in terms of money and opportunity to tempt kids to
stay with tennis once they hit 16 or 17 and things get tougher. It has
to be a career option which compares favourably with an American university
education," he says.
National
women's coach Nandan Bal predicts it is his wards who will make all the
news in the future. "I see more depth in the women. There is a bunch
of girls who can push the seniors on any given day ... in the men the
juniors are not even close to seniors," he claims. Paes and Bal reckon
the only way to build depth in tennis talent is to revitalise the domestic
circuit to help middle to late developers find their feet. Bal wants the
$25,000 events to be scaled down in favour of $10,000 events and a parallel
domestic circuit to allow teenagers to play experienced pros.
"Globalisation"
has brought players like Boris Becker, Patrick Rafter, Pat Cash and Bjorn
Borg to India but then there is little in professional sport that cannot
be bought. It will bring real profit only if Indian tennis can rise beyond
its current status of charming struggler and charmed spectator.
Top
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METRO TODAY
As
the Government brings in more people and mops more money in taxes, it
must be seen to be rewarding those who come forth and pay up, writes India
Today Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 