The Champions Tennis league (CTl) that promises to 'inspire' Indian youth by bringing world class tennis players to India, got off to modest start at the Delhi lawn Tennis Association complex here on Monday.
Though the Delhi franchise, known as Delhi Dreams, comfortably beat Punjab Marshals 25-19 in the inaugural tie, it was far from the quality tennis that international stars are known to produce on court.
Whether it was former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero (retired since 2012) playing against former England No 1 Gregory Rusedsky or our own leander Paes pairing with women's world No 20 Sabine Muguruza, the spark and energy that is associated with these new age leagues were missing. The doubles pairs, having never played together, seemed out of sync.
Only when the singles matches — both men's and women's — got underway, it looked like a serious competition. Otherwise, there were smiles and high-fives even after losing a point. From outside, it looked like an exhibition match where players are paid to have fun and entertain the crowd.
Even if the singles matches looked to take the CTl's opening tie up to a certain level of competitiveness, the format killed it even before it touched the upper limits of excitement.
According to the format, a match consists of only one set. That means there is no room for mistakes and comebacks. It can be argued that the format increases competitiveness and pace of the game, but at what costIJ
Comebacks are a significant part of every professional sport and there is nothing more thrilling than watching a player escaping defeat and turning the match on its head. This format doesn't allow a player to make a comeback.
However, Rusedski said the new format will attract a lot attention and subsequently increase interest in the sport in India.
"It is an exciting format. People can come to the stadium to see all kinds of players in a short span of time. We have got legends, current singles players, doubles specialists and young Indians playing, so it is very intriguing," Rusedski said.
“In this format, every game counts. It's the number of games teams have to concentrate on winning. I got off to a bad start against Ferrero. I would have liked to win a couple of more games. That would have helped my team despite my loss," he added.
Meanwhile, Delhi's Ferrero walked past Punjab's Rusedsky in the first match to give his team a winning start. The rustiness was quite there but the Spaniard hasn't lost the fighting spirit that once took him to the top of the tennis world as he beat Rusedsky 6-1 in the legend category match.
The 34-year-old Ferrero, 2003 French Open winner, still looks stunningly fit but the speed that earned him the name 'mosquito' wasn't there. He was cautious in his sprints across the court.
Also, he didn't need to do that as his 41-year-old opponent didn't put up much resistance.
Rusedsky won the first game quite convincingly but after that he either watched the balls beating him by quite a distance or committed unforced errors. Thankfully, it was only a one-set match.
Punjab immediately struck back with mixed doubles pair of Paes and Muguruza beating the Delhi pair of Jelena Jankovic and Kevin Anderson 6-3. Paes, who has made his name playing doubles, single-handedly pulled the match for his team.
Even though Muguruza was struggling to support him, Paes wasn't worried at all. He was smiling all along, continuously encouraging his partner and winning most of the points.
In the women's singles, world No.15 Jankovic from Serbia had a poor start but she quickly rectified her errors to beat Muguruza 6-5 (5-3) and wrest back the advantage for Delhi.
Paes yet again came to the rescue of Punjab, winning the men's doubles with Devvarman, beating the Delhi pair of Sanam Singh and Anderson 6-4. At this stage Delhi were leading by a small margin of one game -- 19-18.
It all boiled down to the fifth and final match of the tie where Delhi's South African recruit Anderson won his side the tie easily.
Anderson spanked Somdev 6-1 in the deciding men's singles. The 6 feet 8 inches tall Anderson showed why he is world number 16 as he demolished the challenge of the India's number one player in a matter of minutes. The South African sprayed winners all over the centre court with a hapless Somdev gasping.
The Indian, ranked 139, could hold his serve only in the first game of the match and was broken in third, fifth and seventh games as close to 1000 fans watched their hero go down.
If it was heartening to see world class players — both former and current — playing in India, the same can't be said for the competition's quality.