The glorious past of Indian tennis

We were quite good at several things in the past. Math, medicine, architecture and other stuff like that, you know. Ask any geriatric, and he’ll regale you with tales of our glorious history.

The story of Indian sports is similar. Before the bug of cricket swarmed across the nation and infected every kid with an unquenchable urge to wield a willow, this country was really good at hockey and tennis. The Indian hockey teams of the past have attained almost legendary status, but the Indian tennis players are not quite as widely talked about. Which is why I have taken it upon myself to talk about them.

Chennai (formerly Madras) has always been a strong contributor to the crop of top tennis players from India. And Vijay Amritraj gives an interesting explanation as to why the city of Carnatic music and Kollywood is also a city that breeds good tennis players.

When the entire European continent put all outdoor sports activities on hold during the winter, professional sportspersons headed towards the southern hemisphere to continue their pursuits. And one of the major destinations for that was Australia. The Australian Open, back then the last grand slam of the year, was initially a grass-court tournament. And many European players who were making their way to Australia to participate in it would almost invariably halt in India and play some tennis here too. South India’s comfortable tropical weather attracted even those players who weren’t skilled or rich enough to make the journey all the way to Australia to come to India and play in the grass-court events held in the country. And having some of the best playing in your neighborhood meant that the youth of those times were exposed to some really high quality grass-court tennis.

That is why it comes as no surprise that one of India’s best tennis talents was a Chennai-grown grass-court player.

Ramanathan Krishnan at Wimbledon

Krishnan was a highly gifted athlete who made a name for himself and India in the 50′s and 60′s. In an era dominated almost overwhelmingly by the likes of Laver, Newcombe, Emerson and Pancho Gonzales, it would have been quite an achievement to make yourself even visible, and Ramanathan Krishnan was more than just visible.

Known for his beautiful finesse on court, his “touch tennis” style of play was described as “pure oriental charm”. He reached two Wimbledon semi-finals, the second in 1961, beating Roy Emerson on his way there. He lost both times to the eventual champion. But his greatest achievement was perhaps his remarkable comeback from 5-2 down in the fourth set against Brazilian Tomas Koch to take India to its first Davis Cup final. His victory over Rod Laver in Davis Cup (1959) and distinction of being the first Asian to win the Wimbledon junior title in 1954 were some of his other career highlights.

His son Ramesh Krishnan too was a Davis Cup hero. Thrice a Grand Slam quarter-finalist, he defeated the then World No. 1 Mats Wilander in the 1989 Australian Open. He led India to their second Davis Cup (1987) final by defeating Australians Wally Masur and Fitzgerald in the semi-finals.

Ramesh Krishnan

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have become household names in India for their exploits in doubles. In 1999, Paes and Bhupathi reached all four Grand Slam doubles finals, winning the French+Wimbledon double. They finished the year ranked the No. 1 team in the world. This was a new peak for Indian tennis. In 2004, they had quarter and semi-final runs in several events leading up to Athens. The Olympics doubles medal eluded the duo, but Paes made up for it by winning India’s only medal in tennis by grabbing the bronze in singles in Atlanta in 1996, where he lost to Andre Agassi in the semifinals.

Bhupathi-Paes, Wimbledon 1999 Champions

Unfortunately for Indian tennis, with the introduction of indoor tennis courts, the European players no longer needed to travel to the southern hemisphere during winter. Indian youngsters lost their valuable chance to get exposure to the sport. Along with the rising popularity of cricket, Indian tennis got lost somewhere along the way. Barring Sania Mirza, who briefly and meteorically rose to No. 27 and fell away just as quickly, it has been more than two decades since an Indian has made his or her presence felt in the top echelon of the game. While the old guard of Bhupathi and Paes are still on the doubles tour, they play with different partners now.

The future?

Maybe there is a kid out there, sweating it out on some court somewhere, his eyes set on the All England Championship trophy. But till he gets there, we’ll stick to cheering the Swiss and the Spaniards.

Read other articles on similar subjects

https://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/04/05/davis-cup-preview-indias-boys-ready-to-become-men/

https://www.sportskeeda.com/2012/02/08/age-is-about-how-you-feel-leander-paes/