Cupboard is bare

No one creates sporting icons faster than we do. A newcomer hits his first century, and he’s immediately compared with the greats. A bowler takes his first international wicket, and we’re ready to compare his pace and swing, or his flight and turn, with proven masters. Everything is exaggerated, disproportionate. And there’s no bias here; it’s virtually the same with all sporting disciplines.

The end result — except in some exceptional cases, normally we end up nipping them in the bud. For, unlike the western countries or the US, where champions are churned out on a regular basis, we Indians normally get overwhelmed too fast. The flood of publicity, often way out of proportion to their talent, makes them lose their way and focus, and ultimately, their careers. Let’s not generalise it further and focus on what’s more relevant here. For now, let’s talk about tennis — Indian men’s tennis, to be precise.

The just-concluded Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open, for that matter, was an eye-opener of sorts in more ways than one. First, there was not a single Indian qualifier who could make it to the singles main draw. It was only because of the benevolence of the organisers, who decided to award the three wild cards to whom they considered the most promising home hopes, that one saw Rohan Bopanna, Karan Rastogi and Akash Wagh in the main draw. They couldn’t put the opportunity to good use though. All three crashed out in the first round itself — a tough draw making their task all the more difficult.

But it’s not just their departure that’s worrying. Rather, it was the manner of their exits. Rastogi, considered one of the best bets for the future, looked totally out of sorts in his 6-0 6-3 surrender to Germany’s Bjorn Phau.

Bopanna’s serve save him some blushes in his three-set loss (6-3 7-6 6-4) to South Africa’s Wesley Moodie. Only Wagh, an unknown 16-year-old from Pune, gave a fairly good account of himself in his 6-2 7-5 loss to eventual champion Dmitry Tursunov of Russia. Harsh Mankad, another future bet, gave this tournament a miss owing to personal reasons.

It was, of course, a different tale in the doubles, where Bopanna, in the company of Mustafa Ghouse, managed to reach the final. They lost to Mahesh Bhupathi and Croatia’s Mario Ancic after an epic duel in the title clash.

Coming to the moot point, if this is the fare from the most promising of the lot, it’s indeed a scary thought to think about the future of Indian tennis two-three years from now, when Leander Paes and Bhupathi leave the scene.

Tennis legend Vijay Amritraj, a former top 16 player in the world in his heydays, recently voiced his concern over the void. “There has not been a single Indian player in the top 100 of the ATP rankings, which is not a happy situation,” Amritraj, who kept the country’s name on the international tennis map for nearly two decades, said.

“The players have to find out from themselves why they cannot make an impression in singles. They have much better facilities, sponsorship and exposure, than what we saw in our days, then what’s the problem?”

Paes, who at one stage had soared to 73 in the ATP singles rankings, isn’t too happy either. “Singles is definitely a problem. Players like Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj need to show their mettle in the individual game. They are all good players, but they have to work doubly hard, for the competition is becoming tougher by the day,” the doubles ace feels.

It’s true that the ante has been upped. But if the competition has increased, so have the rewards. And proportionately, the hype and expectations too increase. Is it a bit too much for the youngsters to handle?

As Paes once said, “Hype creates a funny atmosphere. It cripples. You lose focus of the simple things to do, to perform. You lose focus of yourself and try to be somebody you’re not. But you have to deal with these things. I learnt this  early from my Dad. He wasn’t interested in excuses or moaning. He would say, ‘Fight your own battles. Go out there and perform, show them you’re so good that they’ve made the wrong choice.’

So I believe that don’t try and evade expectation, it will be there. Just find a way internally to deal with it.” However, Mahesh Bhupathi, whose company Globosport is doing a commendable job in developing the game in the country, isn’t too worried.

“We have a good talent pool. What they need is proper guidance and the right kind of facilities and exposure. The more they play against quality players, the more they will improve. What we need is more top level tournaments,” he feels.