2009 - The year thats been a significant one for Indian Tennis by Partab Ramchand Nov 27, 2009
Viewed from any angle this has been a significant year for Indian tennis. As the 2009 season nears the end there are upbeat signs that better days are ahead for Indian players. And with all the other notable deeds there is little doubt that India making it back to the Davis Cup World Group after a decade must take pride of place. In India, Wimbledon and Davis Cup have always been held in the highest esteem. Over the last decade India had the mortification of being demoted to the zonal rounds. The Indian team lost to Italy 4-1 in the first round in 1998 and since then languished in the qualifying rounds. Australia’s decision not to travel to Chennai citing security concerns gave India the avenue to make it back to the World Group and full credit to the Indian squad for grabbing it with both hands and defeating South Africa 4-1 in the play off tie at Johannesburg. The trick now is to stay there. That is easier said than done for the competition among the 16 elite nations is intense. But then India can take a lot of heart from the encouraging developments this year most of which concerned Somdev Dev Varman. Climbing steadily the Indian ace had a career highest ranking of 116 at the start of November. Most important like other Indian champion players over the years Somdev displayed the heartening approach of rising to the occasion in Davis Cup play. He spearheaded the Indian challenge against Chinese Taipei by winning both his singles. He then followed this up with two singles victories against South Africa and this must certainly be his crowning achievement and should inspire him to even greater deeds in the future. As the Indian coach SP Misra said it is never easy to win Davis Cup matches abroad. Another feature of Somdev’s play was his ability to score meritorious victories over players ranked far above him around the ATP circuit. This was first seen during the Chennai Open in January when he registered successive wins over Carlos Moya and Ivo Karlovic on his way to a title clash with Marin Cilic the tall Croat ranked 27th in the world and seeded third in the tournament. Somdev ranked around 200 at the time fought it out spiritedly for about two hours before going down 4-6, 6-7. In the Davis Cup tie against Chinese Taipei he was pitted against World No 59 Yen-Hsun Lu in the first of the reverse singles. India were leading 2-1 at this stage with Somdev having won his singles against Ti Chen on the opening day only for Rohan Bopanna to go down to Yen-Hsun Lu. There was no guarantee that Bopanna would fare any better against Ti Chen so there was some pressure on Somdev to seal India’s victory. But against an opponent ranked nearly 100 places above him Somdev completed a pretty straightforward 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 victory. His ideal temperament was further cemented by the decisive singles victory over Rik de Voest which clinched the tie against South Africa. Tailing by two sets to love and down a break in the third Somdev staged an unbelievable recovery to win in five sets. While his Davis Cup form was the highlight Somdev also performed creditably around the circuit and in August became the first Indian to be in the main draw of a Grand Slam singles tournament since Prakash Amritraj in 2002. He defeated Frederico Gil in straight sets in the first round before losing to 24th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in four sets. Even as Somdev continued to rise steadily in the rankings there was further encouraging news in the emergence of Yuki Bhambri as a promising star on the horizon. Since the beginning of 2008 he has consistently been in the top 20 among world juniors and in February 2009 earned for himself the ranking of world junior No 1. The year was special for Bhambri, who trains in New Delhi under coach Aditya Sachdeva and also at the Nick Bollitieri Tennis Academy in the US for he won the Junior Australian Open – the first Indian to do so. During the year Bhambri won three ITF singles titles in a row and added one more title in August on home soil defeating compatriot Vishnu Vardhan. His good form saw Yuki being picked as the fifth member of the Davis Cup squad. Yuki also got a direct entry into the Sony Ericcson Classic which had the icons in tennis including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, not to forget Novak Djokovic taking part. He also obtained a doubles wildcard in that event pairing with Harsh Mankad. By winning the 2009 junior Australian Open Yuki was offered a wild card for the 2010 Australian Open qualifying draw. Add to Somdev’s achievements and the emergence of Yuki the rise of Prakash Amritraj and the fact that the old faithful duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are still very much around and doing well and one can understand why better days are ahead for Indian tennis. During the year Paes won the French Open and US Open doubles titles and was runner- up in the mixed doubles final of the US Open. Bhupathi was not far behind winning the mixed doubles in the Australian Open with Sania Mirza. Both Paes and Bhupathi qualified for the doubles event at the year-ending ATP Tour finals in London along with their respective partners. Speaking of Sania she was not to be outdone by the Indian men players. She improved upon her performance in 2008 a year during which she was plagued by injuries. She started the year in style picking up her maiden Grand Slam title in the 2009 Australian Open. She and Bhupathi beat Nathalie Dechy (France) and Andy Ram (Israel) 6-3, 6-1 in the final in Melbourne. Sania then entered the Pattaya Open in Bangkok where she reached the final after a string of good performances. She lost in the title clash to Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-1. She made the semifinals in the doubles in the same tournament. In the first round at Wimbledon Sania defeated Anna-Lena Gronefeld before falling to No 28 seed Sorana Cirstea in the second round. She won the Lexington Challenger event, defeating top seed Julie Coin of France in the final. She also reached the final of the ITF event in Vancouver but lost to Stephanie Dubois of Canada. In the US Open, she defeated Olga Govortsova in the first round but lost to 10th seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy. Sania ended 2009 ranked 58th and there are indication that if she remains injury-free she could break into the top 50 in 2010.