CHENNAI: Rethin Pranav was turning heads at the annual awards function of the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association last week at the SDAT-Nungambakkam stadium. And why wouldn’t he? Currently, he is the player to beat in the country’s U-14 category. But the tennis champion’s journey was not always one with glamour. In fact, the beginning of his passion was stirred by a tragedy. Hailing from a small place in Dindigul, Rethin lost his mother as a three-year-old. “He was introduced to tennis at age of seven to keep him distracted from his mother’s thoughts, who passed away in 2011 in an accident. While I remained in Dindigul, my son Rethin grew up with my in-laws in Karur till 2020,’’ said Senthil Kumar, Rethin’s father. From thereon, the player has gone from strength to strength to become ranked as India no 1 and state no 1 in the U-14 category. “I run my own hotel business in Vedasandur in Dindigul district and my father manages it when I am travelling with my son. Tennis has helped me spend time with my son,” says an emotional Senthil.
This climb, too, came with its obstacles. An old city famous for its textiles and blankets but what it has in fabric, Karur lacks in advanced facilities for tennis. “There was no tennis facility at school, however I was introduced to Gopinath and Kumar who run a small clay court tennis academy for young kids in Karur. Kumar is a PT teacher in a school in Karur and has been coaching me for a long time. Both Gopinath and Kumar saw my potential and devised a programme to improve my skill sets,’’ said Rethin, who was a student of The Indian Public School, Karur until class 7. He currently studies and plays out of Bengaluru.
“My father got me enrolled into AITA tournaments when I was about eight or nine years old. I played in a lot of local district and club competitions and stood victorious. Later, for the first time, I took part in the Pune Open in the sub-juniors (10 yrs) category and won the tournament,’’ added the youngster. Rethin had been India No 1 in the U-12 category. He missed the Asia Oceania qualifiers for U-14 at Kazakhstan in 2021 as Indians were denied permission due to travel restrictions, owing to Covid. He was a also selected to represent India in the World Juniors Championship final at the Czech Republic, but again, the Indian team were denied permission.
In order to improve his game and adapt to the fitness trends, Rethin worked hard and got selected by The Sports School Bangalore which gave him a two-year full merit scholarship to train under Balachandran Manikanth and Rohan Boppanna. “I did fairly well at the academy and as a result I was promoted to the ‘High Performance’ batch from the ‘Junior Pro’ batch. I have my entire scheduling and planning done by Balu sir with direct supervision from Rohan sir. My entire tour, match and training modules are strictly supervised by Rohan sir,’’ informed the youngster, who idolises Rafael Nadal. Rethin wants to do well for India in the junior Davis Cup and has plans to train in Europe for the European circuit to achieve but first, he has to finish his class 10.