There was a time when the Indian Davis Cup squad comprised only of players from Tamil Nadu. Those were the golden days of the Krishnans and Amritrajs. What followed was a period of lull which dragged on for nearly three decades. But now, the scenario seems to be on the brink of change once again.
A few years back, the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) took it upon itself to revive the glory days of the sport in Tamil Nadu. A two-pronged approach was adopted — organising more tournaments and funding budding sportsmen. This move has borne fruit in more ways than one. Three players scaled up in rankings, two of them breaking into the top 300. The most noteworthy is 19-year-old Ramkumar Ramanathan (298), tipped to be the next big thing of Indian tennis. Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (293) and N Sriram Balaji (318) have also shown promise, with the former being named reserve alongside Ramkumar in the Davis Cup World Group playoff against Serbia next month.
CBN Reddy, the secretary of TNTA, says they are working towards making Tamil Nadu a driving force once again. “There was a time when all four in the Davis Cup team were from Tamil Nadu. We want to achieve that. In 2010, we took it upon ourselves to improve the state of tennis. We were hoping for our players to reach 150, but it is taking longer than expected. In 3-4 years, they have moved up from 1000s into the 300s,” he told Express.
“We started holding more tournaments and funding players. We began with three Futures tournaments, then for two years we conducted six and this year, we have held three Futures so far. We have also organised Challengers. Other federations followed suit and we had Challengers in Kolkata and New Delhi this year,” he added.
Reddy is of the opinion that if more such events are held, players will not have to go abroad, thereby saving on time, money and energy. “India should host many more tournaments. We have three players playing in three different parts of the world now. It is not only expensive but time consuming as well,” he says.
An overdose may, however, kill the very purpose. “A country like Turkey hosts up to 60 Futures in a year but look at the number of players they have in the top 1000 — only three. Same is the case with Egypt. In comparison, we have around 13 players in 1000,” he added.
Recently, with the help of TNTA vice-president Karti P Chidambaram, the association joined hands with Croatian firm called Tennis Touch, which has developed a mobile application for players and fans and provides information related to tournaments.
The training facilities, however, need to be improved as beyond a certain age, players have to train abroad. Lack of foreign coaches adds to the woes. In spite of such shortcomings, the players and association is leaving no stone unturned. Snehadevi Reddy and Mukund Sasikumar are other bright prospects gradually making their way up the ladder from the junior circuit. As they say, well begun is half done.