lacking quality single’s players, former India No.1 and Asian Games gold medallist Gaurav Natekar believes the growing list of doubles players is due to multiple reasons. “leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi opened up a whole world for Indian players where they realised that given the physical abilities of the other players, tennis has become very powerful and physical that beyond a point, just to be financially secure and capable that it makes sense to play doubles. And Indians generally have great hands and have talent with touch game,” he said on Thursday.
“I think there is a lack of juniors that are coming up. But we need to go into Tier 2 and 3 cities because I don’t think kids in the urban cities have the time or the inclination to maintain focus. The transition from junior to senior level and then lack of sponsors creates problems,” he added.
Inter school tourney in Delhi-NCR
Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy (MBTA) in association with HCl are organising an Inter School Tennis Challenge with more than 100 schools — private and government — in Delhi/NCR invited. The tournament begins on July 27 and ends on August 2.
Natekar, now CEO of MBTA, added there is no decision yet regarding the number of players in the draw as that would depend on the entries received. However, per the release, the tournament is divided into two categories — U17 for the team event and U15 for the individual event. Both boys and girls are eligible. Each school is encouraged to send a maximum of 5 participants per team with the action taking place at the DlTA courts.
The winner of the individual event will be sent on a one week training stint to the Schuettler Waske Tennis Academy in Frankfurt, Germany; the same academy where Wimbledon junior boy’s doubles winner Sumit Nagal has been training for the past three years. The runner up will have the opportunity to train at MBTA’s centre in Kochi.