How did Indians fare in 2013 - Part 1

Year in detail

The year 2013 did not begin well for our men. With the exception of a decent performance from Prakash Amritraj at the Chennai Open and the comeback of Somdev Devvarman, all the other players including our seasoned doubles campaigners failed to make their presence felt. Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes had numerous problems starting with improper pairings. Yuki Bhambri stayed away from competition due to nagging injuries and Prakash Amritraj’s season was cut short by mid year due to injuries. Our only respite was seeing Somdev notching wins in the ATP circuit and playing enthralling matches against higher ranked opponents.

On the women’s side though, Sania Mirza started the year with a bang. She, along with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, won the Brisbane International Premier tournament in the very first week. Though they were inconsistent in winning, they won two titles and finished runners-up once. Mattek-Sands’ injuries and priority over singles saw their partnership break. In singles, Ankita Raina was hitting top form by bagging 3 titles and finishing runner-up another 3 times.

The second half was a very good period for our players. Rohan Bopanna found a good partner in Edouard Roger-Vasselin and they almost made it to the WTF. Leander Paes won the US Open at 40 and also qualified for the WTF.

Sania Mirza found a very good partner in Zheng Jie after a mediocre stint with Liezel Huber. They won a title and made it to the US Open semifinals.Later, in Cara Black, she found an even better partner. They won two titles at the end of the year have agreed to play together next year much to the respite of fans who were worried about Sania not partnering a regular doubles player like herself.

Yuki Bhambri also made a good comeback in this part of the season with a Challenger win and a runner-up finish. Ankita Raina promoted herself to the upper echelons of the ITF circuit but failed to make an impact. Both will be vying for the Australian Open 2014 wildcard at the Asia-Pacific AO wildcard playoffs.

It will be very interesting to see how the next season turns up with the Indo-Pak express reuniting and Sania-Cara continuing their partnership. Besides, India will also host a couple of challenger events for men. 2014 also sees the Asian Games taking place in which tennis is a sport while the CWG does not feature tennis this time. With Yuki Bhambri, Saketh Myneni, Divij Sharan, Ankita Raina and others constantly improving, 2014 will surely be the year to watch.

7. Divij Sharan and Purav Raja enter the big screen

Starting their season just during the last week of February, Divij Sharan and Purav Raja have worked their way up the rankings ladder to the top 100 for the first time ever and thus making it 5 Indians in the top 100 rankings.

With considerate success in the Challenger tour, including a title and three runner-up finishes prior to the Wimbledon, they made it to the qualifiers at Roehampton. After qualifying for their first ever tour event and Grand Slam, they lost a tough five setter in the first round. Following this, they made it to the Columbia Open in Bogota, a 250 event as the fourth seeds and won the tournament. Surprisingly, it was their first tour event apart from the Wimbledon.

They form that they showed then receded into oblivion for the rest of the season. They managed to register very few wins apart from the runner-up finish at Tashkent Challenger.

They are two promising players, especially Divij with his superior doubles skills. He was the first of the two to crack the top 100 way back in the last season. They might have had good success at times but they faltered at many junctures. Yet, for this partnership to last, they will have to come up with something extraordinary and work even harder. Sharan’s runs into the semifinals of Newport 250 event with Ivo Karlovic and into the third round of the US Open with Yen Hsun-Lu portray his potential to make it big in doubles. Hopefully, both enjoy an even better season and continue to improve their rankings.These two have done very well to assure fans that the top three will not be unaided. Finally, we seem to have the key to the oft repeated question- Who after Paes and Bhupathi barring Bopanna?

6. Ankita Raina – The Next Mirza?

Kyra Shroff seemed promising in 2011. When she faltered, Rishika Sunkara seemed to be the best. Prerna Bhambri returned to raise hopes. Yet, it is Ankita who had been a silent player all along, who made an impact this season. She opened the season with 7 finals ( including 3 titles ).

After a string of 10k tournaments, she started playing in the 25k category. This season saw her scale heights unscaled in recent times. She reaches the finals of the Karshi 2 tournament and thus became the first woman since Sania Mirza to do so. She also broke into the top 300 and is one of the few to do so apart from Mirza and few others.

She is very solid with her ground strokes and once even attracted the attention of David Ferrer and his coach during a training stint at Spain. She seems to be very promising though her performances in the higher category tournaments have not been very good. Some more sharpening of skills will add to experience she has got through playing in higher category tournaments. It will be very interesting to track her performances next year.

Though she reached as high as 291 in singles, doubles doesn’t seem to be her forte. With others like Prarthana Thombare and Rishika Sunkara lagging behind, she is clearly the favorite to succeed Sania Mirza as the next tennis star. Whether she will be able to do it should be clear only next year . Further, she is now competent enough to even lead our Fed Cup team in the Group 2 next year. In the absence of Sania Mirza in singles, she could also play a pivotal role in the Asian Games next year.

5. Yuki Bhambri finally comes of age

After endless injury breaks, he has finally started playing at a better level. A long pending transition to the senior level now seems to have been completed.

After struggling with injuries during the first half of the season, Bhambri played some exhilarating tennis to achieve unprecedented results in the Futures and Challenger levels. He reached two finals in the challenger tour and won one.

His good form started from Taiwan, where he reached two Futures finals, losing one due to cramps and winning the other. The very next week, he posted wins over higher ranked opponents in all the rounds to reach the finals of the 125k challenger. But, he ended up losing the final to former Wimbledon quarter finalist Yen-Hsun Lu. He also lost the doubles final on the same day.

After a small break, he moved to Australia to play a Futures event where he lost in the quarterfinals. The following week, he lost in another quarterfinals. This time it was a Challenger event. The very next week, he mustered all his strength to win the Traralgon Challenger.

It is pertinent to note that both the Challenger finals have been quite an adventure for him owing to rains. At Taiwan, he had to play a tight three setter of a semifinal and the final matches of both singles and doubles on the same day! At Traralgon, his final match saw around eight rain disruptions and was ultimately concluded on the next day(Monday)! He is growing to be more strong and persistent.

The fact that he could compile 25/29 wins in these six events, though not of very high standards, in itself is a breakthrough for Bhambri. After searching for the elusive break for long, he seems to have found it finally. His season next year is going to be all the more interesting with him having virtually very few points to defend till mid-year. He will also be participating in the Australian Open Asia-Pacific wild card qualifiers to gain his first Grand Slam Main draw entry.

This talented lad is shaping out to be a very good asset for Indian tennis with Somdev being the only player in the top 100 singles rankings today. Another string of good performances and some wins at ATP tournaments will surely help him boost his ranking and join Somdev. Somdev might be better today . Yet, we must realize that at 28, he can no longer nurture lofty dreams through his career is still young. On the contrary, at 20, Yuki Bhambri is peaking at the right time and if he manages to remain healthy, he can scale greater heights.

For part 2, click here: Indian tennis in 2013