New Delhi: Finally, Indian tennis has something to celebrate. The milestone victory over Switzerland — India’s first against a European nation away from home in 32 years — is indeed worth celebrating.
The outcome of this indoor tie in Biel is a combination of factors: proper planning, bold decision-making and a fearless approach exhibited by Indian players.
But the big question that keeps striking the mind is, if Indian tennis system can actually claim this win as its own. The answer is: partially.
After all, the system was not keen on sending a big squad, including three doubles specialist players, to Biel. Instead officials, who had nothing to contribute to the team’s preparation, boarded the plane to the country surrounded by spectacular natural beauty.
Skipper Rohit Rajpal had to fight a fight outside the courts to ensure that India had enough players in the squad. This was done to ensure that India have ideal replacement, if need be.
And the need indeed arose when Yuki Bhambri was ruled out due to a foot injury. Courtesy proper planning, India had Rithvik Bollipalli ready to pair with N Sriram Balaji for the doubles.
It’s another matter that India did not win the doubles point but the team did not lack quality. Bollipalli and Balaji put up a tremendous fight and had genuine chance to win that contest.
So, planning worked and due credit to the team management.
The key to India’s win was confident performances of the singles players. Dhakshineshwar Suresh and Sumit Nagal grabbed those three points.
Here also, it was a strategic decision to field reserve player Dhakshineshwar ahead of higher-ranked Aryan Shah or Karan Singh.
Rajpal realised during the training week that Dhakshineshwar’s big serve and fluent hitting with which he was easily outplaying his compatriots can serve the team better.
But what Rajpal saw was the result of years of work Dhakshineshwar had put in with his own coaching team. Coming from Dindigul to Chennai, it was Laxman Chakravarathy, who worked on his game till the U16 level.
Former India player Somdev Devvarman mentored him for some time, and Karthi Chidambaram, who was connected with TNTA for some time, also helped in his own way.
In 2021, Dhakshineshwar moved to Wake Forest University where coach Tony Bresky honed his skills. He was also given a wild card for the ATP 250 event hosted inside the the University Complex.
The point is that Dhakshineshwar’s progress has more to do with his hard work and individual efforts of a few people in his tennis journey. There was no official system that fuelled his growth or powered his dream.
If Dhakshineshwar managed to pull off the opening singles against world number 155 Jerome Kym and he did not feel the nerves it was because he had hit thousands of balls against quality players before landing in Biel. He already had the exposure and the game to challenge good players.
So, the strategy to field him yielded result and credit to Rajpal for making a bold decision.
The question is, where the official Indian system was involved when it comes to accelerating the growth of the players.
Ditto for Nagal. It’s a known fact that if Mahesh Bhupathi had not listened to his pleas during a talent hunt programme, a player like him would not have emerged.
Bhupathi invested heavily in Nagal and ensured that he trained in Europe. Nagal trained under Sascha Nensel in Germany and his fitness is taken care of by Milos Galecic. Cynthia Smith is his mental trainer and Yash Pandey works with him as Physio. 11 months a year this team is with him.
Even Rohan Bopanna has done his bit with his doubles programme that supports doubles players in their travel and training.
So if a few individuals can create an impact, imagine what Indian tennis can achieve if a genuine official machinery is put into place.
So, Indian players have certainly won on their individual brilliance but the system can’t fully claim the win.
Indeed, the country can celebrate this rare success against a quality European side but is this going to change something in Indian tennis?
Nagal will continue his grind on the Tour, striving to get back to top-100 and other too go through the same.
It’s true that tennis is an individual game but a country like India needs a national federation that not only supports the big players but also unearth and nurture talent, otherwise what’s the purpose of its existence?
The government has broken all the barriers in terms of support to the athletes with schemes like TOPS and TAGG and also through ACTC but unless a proper home-grown system that supports at least a hundred players aged between 10 and 15, India can’t be a force in a demanding sport like tennis.
As of today, AITA takes pride in hosting close to 1000 tournaments in the country but actually it just facilitates those tournaments and charge a royalty sum to the organisers.
The Centre of Excellence has shut, there is no sports science centre and there is no substantial efforts in the direction of upgradation of the coaches. India has lost its only ATP 250 event and not all state associations make an effort to host tournaments.
Even if each state association hosts one international tournament a year be it ITF or ATP Challenger, a robust circuit can be created.
The first thing Indian tennis needs is a federation that has passionate administrators, who have the vision and will to bring required changes and build on this success in Switzerland.
