CHENNAI: When two-time national singles tennis champion Manish Sureshkumar lost a draining three-set men's singles semifinal encounter to his doubles partner, Nitin Kumar Sinha, at the Fenesta Open on Friday, it marked a dent to his dominance at the national championships. While his title defence ended at the hands of his teammate, the duo went on to win the doubles title later that day. They beat Rohith Gobinath and Srikar Doni 6-3, 6-2 in the final.
“Physically, I was struggling starting from the second set. The previous day, we had played a very long (quarterfinal) match. I barely managed to win (vs Parth Aggarwal 6-1, 5-7, 7-5). In the semifinals as well, I was facing physical issues and cramping in between,” he told this daily. “It was surprising for me to get cramps in consecutive matches even though I was well-hydrated, so I need to find a solution at the earliest,” he said.
But in the doubles, Manish, along with Nitin, has enjoyed considerable success. In August this year, the duo won an ITF Men's 25k tournament in Taipei. They defeated the Japanese pair of Shinji Hazawa and Taisei Ichikawa 6-3, 6-4 in the final. He recalled how he and Nitin worked through initial days as a doubles' pair. “We tried playing together a few weeks about two or three years ago, but we weren't doing very well then and were losing early. Recently, we tried a few tournaments in Taiwan and suddenly clicked, winning an ITF tournament. Since we were doing well, we wanted to play the nationals too. His doubles ranking is much higher (221 as of October 5) compared to mine (610 as of Oct 5). For me to get into Challengers, I need to get close to his ranking. Right now, he might play with different partners, but if I reach that stage, we might play together again,” he said.
Manish said he will try to work more on his doubles game. “One thing I would like to add to my game is dedicated doubles practice. Previously, I never used to do a lot of doubles-specific drills. I think that is one thing I am going to add, maybe 30 to 45 minutes of doubles drills every day because it will help me get sharper,” he said.
But he will also prioritise his singles game, too. “It is a tough choice (between singles and doubles). Ideally, I would like to prioritize singles, but if my doubles ranking moves way ahead to a point where I can get entry into Challenger-level events consistently, I might try to play both but if my singles ranking improves way ahead, I will focus on singles,” he said.
He is now in Solapur, Maharashtra for an ITF 25k tournament. In the men's doubles, he will pair with Dhakshineswar Suresh to face the pair of Aziz Ouakaa of Turkey and WR Vinciguerra of Sweden in the first round.
‘Coach like a second father to me’
In all of the successes and failures, his coach Suresh Kumar Sonachalam has stood beside him. Sonachalam runs the Chennai Tennis Centre in Mylapore here. “He is like my second father to me. I have been training with him since I was about 9 or 10 years old. So it's been around 16 to 17 years already. He knows me really well,” he said.
