Skip to main content

Indian tennis - the cast is bigger than the plot

By Anonymous

The Olympics has not yet begun and we already had a thrilling episode wrt the Indian tennis team for London.   We saw the personalities come out in full colour.  Mahesh “He is a back-stabber” Bhupathi, Rohan “no one but Mahesh” Bopanna, Leander “it is all about India” Paes and Sania “I am a victim” Mirza– what a joke.  This was a soap opera playing out in the open and every actor (and atleast one dad) wanted his or her 15 minutes in the limelight.  For those who didn’t follow the story, here is one version of it
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/london-olympics-2012/news/Controversies-mark-Indian-tennis-ahead-of-Olympics/articleshow/14861893.cms

Amongst all of this, what was lost was the quality of Team India in Olympics.  We have a 39 year old and a 38 year old representing us in what is clearly a young man’s sport.   Whatever happened to the Yuki Bhambri’s of the world? I remember seeing Yuki play 4 years ago in the juniors in US open and being really impressed by him.  And what about the next Sania Mirza?  We have not seen one women’s player at the top since Sania gave us a lot to cheer 7 years ago.

With the growing economic prosperity in India combined with the fact that India had produced good players of international calibre like Vijay Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan, Leander Paes,  Sania Mirza, etc  - we were expecting many more top Indian tennis players.   While we have seen some hope in the likes of Somdev Devvarman, the results have been largely disappointing.

There is no way India is going to medal in singles in the Olympics – that is a given.  Our best chances of medaling in doubles are with Mahesh and Bopanna – Paes and Vishnu are un-tested as a pair and neither Paes nor Sania can play a decent backhand.    Even if our players are able to perform exceedingly well and do India proud, we have a singular larger issue to contend with. 

Why is India not producing a steady crop of top tennis players?  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chennai beats Mumbai and clinch thriller

By
It is not just about coming back. It is about the impact you make in the process. And Chennai team knows how to with a bang.  The Chennai team beat the home team by one wicket in what was an absolute sit-at-the-end-of-the-chair thriller. It was one of the best chases the tournament has seen and it most definitely won't be the last. The player who made the difference in the end - Jadhav - literally came back from the dead after retiring hurt to take his team to the finish line by hitting the ball in style with a six and a four.  Batting on one leg and playing an absolutely unbelievable shot, this player leveled the scores first with a six and finished the match with a four.  Key Points  MI has never won their opener since 2013. This was Chennai's first win against MI in an opener of this T20 League  DRS used in the league for the first time  Bravo : It was a great team effort. I want to dedicate this win to the CSK fan, they have waited long for
Post a Comment
Read more

Editor's Pick (ODI Finals): Bangladesh - Sri Lanka

By
The finals are finally here. Bangladesh meets Sri Lanka leaving Zimbabwe out. You might think that being home series for Bangladesh, it is really no big deal. But it really is not so. Sri Lanka lost home series. Now Australia is facing severe defeat by England. There is no such thing that it is normal for the home team to win anymore. Plus I would really like to appreciate Bangladesh for the way they are making into the big league of cricket today. If you look at the points table, you will see that Bangladesh won three out of four matches. Their points - 15 - are almost four times the score of Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka, with 9 points, made it to the finals. The last match saw Sri Lanka Beat Bangladesh. The only match that the home team ever lost. Makes you wonder if Bangladesh peaked a tad too early, doesn’t it? It was a comprehensive win for Sri Lanka. Bangladesh were 82 all out in 24 overs. Sri Lanka hit the target in less than 12 overs and won by ten wickets. It was really a o
2 comments
Read more

Blog Time: Bangladesh Beats Sri Lanka

By
Bangladesh defeated Sri Lanka in their own den. The Lions losing to India was somewhat alright. I mean it is India. And the current team is one of the best teams in the world. They also defeated South Africa in South Africa. But Sri Lanka losing to Bangladesh in Sri Lanka will be extremely hard to digest. A lot of people were surprised. Now I have the habit of rooting for the underdogs and I had a feeling that Bangladesh had it in them. It was nice to be able to tell others, “I told you that Bangladesh could win”. Mushfiqur Rahim held back his celebrations until the winning runs were stroked What did happen? Sri Lanka came in to bat first and hit a solid 214 runs in 20 overs. It was a very good score indeed. Perera’s 74 along with Kusal Mendis’s 57 took the runs to a competitive level. It seemed like a sure-fire win for the lions. A very fair assumption to make too. And then came in Bangladesh. From the word go, they were on the track to victory. The first wicket fell at
Post a Comment
Read more