‘I am motivated to do well this season’

It has been a frustrating year for India’s top singles player, Somdev Devvarman. Some good performances in the three-Challenger swing at the start of the year, which got him as high-up as 76 in the rankings, were negated by a mid-season slump.

A memorable win in the Davis Cup against Dusan Lajovic and a runner-up finish at a Challenger in Shanghai might have helped salvage the season a bit, but a drop in the rankings to the 140s put him out of contention for a place in the main draw of the Aircel Chennai Open.

Now ranked 138, the 29-year-old, who is hoping for a fresh start, interacted with the media on Friday.

Excerpts:

On the past year: There were some good spots and some not so good. But as a whole it was mediocre if not the worst ever. But I am motivated to do well this season. I feel like its going to be good.

On his off-season: Its been one of the best off seasons ever. I spent a week with Tony Roche in Kolkata. What better way than a legend breaking down your game? Then I trained for two weeks in Doha. Tennis is very physical. I can’t possible have a serve like Raonic’s but I can certainly improve it. I tried doing that. And also I hope to use my forehand more as a weapon.

Soon to be 30, do you think you are over the hill? The desire is to always become a better tennis player. I am not exactly bothered where I am on the hill. Some players play their best tennis in the 30s. I have lots of self belief now and I hope I can do it.

On fitness concerns: I am in one of my best shapes ever. I have worked a lot. Yes, as you age it’s easy to drop. But I am not worried.

On the approach to the start of the season: Once the season starts its always all out. Everybody wants to win the tournament and will go full throttle. Nobody plays at 80 per cent. Everybody looks to be in good shape before the Australian Open.

On playing doubles: No. I don’t think so. But I’ll try put my name and see if I can get in.

Target for 2015: I need to get my level up and be back into the top 100.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/tennis/i-am-motivated-to-do-well-this-season/article6749336.ece

'I need to improve my volley'

Eighteen-year-old Borna Coric has been clocking close to three hours daily on the court ever since he arrived in Chennai. Now he wants to “slow it down and get some rest,” and stay fresh when the tournament gets underway on January 5. But for the Croat, the past year has been a ride on the highway. He became the first 17-year-old to make the top 100 since Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet did it 10 years ago. On Friday he spoke to The Hindu on his successes so far and his future.

Excerpts

It has been a phenomenal year for you. You moved from 303 to 91. Can you sum up your progress?

I was playing really good… especially towards the end of the year. I had some very good wins and I played one semifinal at Basel (ATP 500). I also beat Rafael Nadal. So I am very happy with the season. Now I need to focus on new challenges.

Was the win over Nadal the highlight of the year?

Yeah. It was a special feeling. I didn’t expect to beat him and just told myself to give my best. He didn’t play his best tennis and I played very good on important points. But as I said, I can’t keep looking at the past.

In 2013, you trained with Nadal in Spain. Now before coming here you trained with Novak Djokovic. What did you learn?

You can see how they practise and what their habits are. Some things I had also started and confirmed that those were the right things to do. But I can’t say [I learnt] something very special.”

Growing up, how big an influence was Goran Ivanisevic?

I met him when I was 14 or 15. I used to play with him a lot because when I was 16 I didn’t have any coach for six months. Now I don’t play him much but we text each other almost everyday. He is an unbelievable guy.

In which areas of the game have you improved in the last year?

The serve has been my biggest improvement. And also my forehand. I still need to improve my volleys.

Tennis has become a very physical game. As a youngster how much do you focus on the fitness part?

One and half hours of fitness and about four hours of tennis is what I do each day.

How do you like the conditions here?

It’s very hot but you get used to it. Evenings are nice to play. Courts are not fast and I like it that way. So I like being here.

What are your targets for the coming season?

To finish in the top 50. It is very doable.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/tennis/i-need-to-improve-my-volley-coric/article6749335.ece

‘My goal this year is to stay healthy’

Yuki Bhambri began 2014 ranked inside the top-200. As a nod to his improvement, he was offered a wildcard to the Aircel Chennai Open where he went on to make the quarterfinals.

A year later, Bhambri finds himself ranked 249. And, with his ranking well outside the cut-off for the main draw, he will have to work his way through the qualifiers this time.

“I expected to be in the main draw this year considering my performance here last year. But its three rounds of qualifying,” said Bhambri, who had his first hit of the year on the Thursday going into the tournament.

Part of the reason for this dip in ranking has been his fitness. A lengthy spell on the sidelines due to a heel injury meant all the hard work at the start (he reached a career-high 143 last February) came undone.

“[The year] was up and down. I had a great start here, and won a Challenger too. I would have liked to have played more,” Bhambri said.

In the year gone by, one of the 22-year-old’s main focus areas was his volleying.

But in the modern-day game, having a huge serve is a prerequisite for that. Even Davis Cup captain Anand Amritraj said Bhambri has to serve at 200kph consistently to harbour any hopes of making his way up.

“It [having a big serve] is very important in men’s tennis,” said Bhambri. “It makes your life a lot easier and often bails you out of trouble. I worked in California (with former player Taylor Dent) recently, and it’s still in progress. I hope it gets better.”

But the constantly changing conditions, the nature of surfaces and opponents’ varying strengths mean that adding a lot of variety to one’s game is also becoming a necessity.

“I have been working on different things. It keeps changing. I need to be a bit more aggressive,” he said.

“And, this year, the balls are much bigger. So I have to be prepared for longer rallies. I need to basically mix it up.”

Does having to play in the qualifying event add to the pressure?

“It’s actually less pressure,” he said. “Being in the main draw, you are expected to do well. It’s a bit more responsibility because the organisers believe in you. But, here, it’s just me and myself.”

“It always tough because you have to beat one or two very good players.

“It’s start of the year, and the players are shaky. So it’s good to have played a decent number of matches before the main draw.”

“If I go through, [playing the qualifiers] could be an added advantage,”

“Tennis is perhaps the only sport where you get season reviews and season previews on your timeline at the same time,” said a top writer recently.

For a sport which is played through almost 85 per cent of the year, and the off-season is pretty much non-existent.

But an assessment of one’s performance through a year needs a proper demarcation. And for Bhambri, it could well be the start of the year.

“This year my goal is to stay healthy,” said Bhambri.

“It’s a new start.”

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/tennis/yuki-bhambri-interiew-my-goal-this-year-is-to-stay-healthy/article6745694.ece

A mixed year for Indian tennis

In tennis, nationalistic fervour has always been in short supply. More so for Indian fans. While the exploits of the Amritraj brothers, the Krishnans, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza over the years have always been appreciated and celebrated, an average fan more readily identifies with a John McEnroe, a Pete Sampras, a Steffi Graf or a Roger Federer.

The year 2014 has been no different. Rafael Nadal’s injury woes, Federer’s resurgence which included two Masters titles, reaching the Wimbledon final and a return to world no. 2 in the rankings, and the emergence of the next rung in both men’s and women’s tennis — the likes of Marin Cilic, Stanislas Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep — were the most talked-about topics.

These came even as Sania Mirza’s golden year, the impressive fight that India showed in the Davis Cup against Serbia and the rise of promising youngsters like Ramkumar Ramanathan and Ankita Raina were warmly applauded.

However, for Indian tennis in particular, it has been a mixed year. Notable achievements have come in the form of Sania Mirza’s performance — the US Open mixed doubles title, doubles trophy at the World Tour Finals and medals at the Incheon Asian Games — and Indians winning three of the five Challengers held at home — Yuki Bhambri, Somdev Devvarman and Saketh Myneni.

On the other hand

But the country’s fortunes in singles have nose-dived. Devvarman and Bhambri, after good starts to the year, when they won a Challenger each in India, have seen their rankings plummet. This has resulted in no Indian getting a direct entry into the only ATP tour event in India, the Aircel Chennai Open. Even in doubles, India is still dependent on 41-year-old Leander Paes to shore up the team.

“We need a much-bigger pool of players,” said India’s Davis Cup captain Anand Amritraj. “Ramkumar has come along very well and probably should start playing Davis Cup. But what’s worrying is that there aren’t many 17 and 18-year-olds showing promise. Guys like Sasikumar Mukund are there, but we need more.”

Good sign

In this backdrop, India, for the first time, welcoming five Challenger tournaments this year was a good sign. However, with sponsorships hard to come by, the number of entry-level tournaments ($10,000 and $15,000 Futures) have dropped. A way to finance tournaments is to be found at the earliest, especially, in light of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) recommending that, from 2016, all $10,000 tournaments be upgraded to $15,000s and $15,000s to $25,000 and so on.

Towards the end of the year, the two high-profile tennis leagues — Mahesh Bhupathi’s International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) and Vijay Amritraj’s Champions Tennis League (CTL) — were branded as ones that will help increase the Indian imprint in international tennis. They brought top international stars like Federer, Novak Djokovic, Venus Williams and Agnieszka Radwanska in close proximity to Indian players and fans.

While it no doubt helps in inspiring and educating young players, India needs to embrace international tennis at a more competitive level by organising more ATP and WTA Tour events.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/tennis/rewind-2014-a-mixed-year-for-indian-tennis/article6736143.ece

Notable successes recorded

For long, disciplines other than cricket have found it tough to gain attention. While one-off successes have always been celebrated, often it’s the bad administrative milieu that takes up a sizeable amount of newsprint. This year too there has been no dearth of controversies as the fiasco in Indian boxing tells us.

However, the continued successes in squash, cue-sports and badminton have proved that winning is no longer one-off. We take a close look.

Squash: It isn’t surprising that most Indians want squash to make it into the Olympics. After a handful of firsts that Indian squash had in 2014, it offers fertile ground for accolades in a medal starved nation.

The year gone by can be termed a precursor to that. India had its best-ever showing at both the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games with a gold each. In fact, at the Incheon Asiad India won medals in each of the four categories — gold in men’s team, silver in women’s team, silver in men’s individual (Saurav Ghosal) and bronze in women’s individual (Dipika Pallikal).

Squash is a sport where the cream comes from the Commonwealth countries. In that vein, the gold medal-winning feat of Joshna Chinappa and Dipika was stupendous. The duo’s was also India’s first-ever medal in the competition. Among Joshna’s and Dipika’s scalps were the Malaysian pair of World No. 1 Nicol David and Loe Wee Wern and top seeds Jenny Duncalf and Laura Massaro from England.

Alongside Dipika’s, Joshna’s and Ghosal’s exploits, it was heart-warming to see Harinder Pal Sandhu grab some attention. The 25-year-old provided a perfect start to the gold medal-winning effort in Incheon by dismissing defending champion Mohd. Azlan Iskandar in the opening singles. He also won three PSA challenger events of the four held in India and capped off the year by claiming the senior National title.

Now 2015 will be all about how each of them builds on the successes of 2014.

Cue-sports: “I have enjoyed my season and enjoyed some really good results. I don’t know if I will ever be able to repeat a year like this. It’s just been a phenomenal year for me. I have won so much and even if I lost the last one, you can’t win them all.”

This was Pankaj Advani after his defeat to 14-year-old sensation Yan Bingtao in the IBSF World snooker championships quarterfinals in Bangalore in November.

Advani has been the leading light in Indian cue sports for a while now and with a year as this, it no doubt marked a landmark year for the sport as well. He won four world titles and took his total count to 12 and also effortlessly switched between snooker and billiards and the longer and shorter formats of the two.

His crowning glory was perhaps at the World billiards championship in Leeds in October. After conquering Singapore's Peter Gilchrist in the final of the shorter format of the game, the 150-up billiards championship, a week later he made sure that he owned the time format trophy too.

This was the Advani’s third career double — the other two were in 2005 and 2008 — thus becoming the only player in the history of the sport to do so. Mike Russell won the double in 2010 and 2011.

The Advani legend has never been in question. But in 2014 it acquired a giant halo.

Badminton: In recent times, Saina Nehwal has had to carry the expectations of the whole of India. If 2012 and 2013 saw a slight lessening of it with P. Kashyap and P. V. Sindhu showing promise, 2014 has presented them as stars on whom one can pin hope.

Some historic moments were scripted by P. V. Sindhu when she became the first Indian to win two back-to-back medals in the World badminton championships. She also won bronze medals at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and Incheon Asian Games. A title at the Macau Open rounded off a splendid year for her.

Saina, at the start of the year, won the Australian Super Series. She then changed coaches, moving from P. Gopi Chand to train under Vimal Kumar. She tasted instant success when she became the first Indian woman to win the China Open Super Series Premier.

Not to be left behind, P. Kashyap won the individual gold at the Commonwealth Games and K. Srikanth snatched a great victory by beating five-time world champion and two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan at the 2014 China Open to become the first Indian to win a Super Series Premier men’s title.

Also during the year, Saina and Sindhu joined forces to win a team bronze at the Uber Cup, which was hosted by India for the first time. A women’s team bronze was won at the Asian Games making it India’s first since 1986. The women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa got the silver in Glasgow and R. M. V. Gurusaidutt a bronze in singles.

“Overall it is great for Indian badminton. It has been the best year for Indian badminton,” Gopi Chand told PTI. “The Uber Cup and Asian Games medals have been the first-ever and these are really big and shows team strength. We had three different champions and it is always good to see that.”

Boxing: A gold medal for Mary Kom at the Incheon Asian Games — the first gold for any Indian woman in boxing at the Asian Games — was the only highlight as troubles outside the boxing ring marred the sport. For more than two years the boxers haven’t had any meaningful practice as the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation was de-recognised by the AIBA, the sport’s international ruling body.

Boxing India, an interim ruling body, was recognised by the world body but curiously failed to get the Indian Olympic Association’s nod. The bad effect these problems have had on performances can be clearly seen by the below-average returns in both the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.

http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20150103507306100.htm

A conditioning camp in right earnest

Tennis is a sport which perhaps has the shortest of off-season windows. Players get barely a month to reflect on the season gone by and make adjustments for better returns in the future before the ball starts rolling again.

But in 2014, the window has been shorter than ever before. While the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) kept the world’s foremost players busy, the Champions Tennis League (CTL) and Premier Tennis League saw participation by many an Indian.

Some of these Indian players like Ramkumar Ramanathan, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Sasi Kumar Mukund among others, hailing from Tamil Nadu, have now come together, under the aegis of the local association, for a strengthening-cum-conditioning camp before the Aircel Chennai Open which starts on January 5.

Cohesiveness is the goal

“Normally all players have a decent off-season,” says Karti P. Chidambaram, Vice-President, Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA). “But this year the season was longer and a bit disjointed. So we wanted to bring some cohesiveness and also get them fit. During the off-season the emphasis is more on fitness than on tennis.”

Leading the camp is the duo of Mithun Murali, a former National doubles champion and Manu Bajpai, a strength-and-conditioning specialist.

“First Jeevan called me and said he wanted to do his pre-season here,” says Mithun. “I then thought what about the other guys? So we decided to get all of them in. The Tamil Nadu players are a close unit. They help each other. Now seniors like Jeevan can help the younger lot like Sasi Kumar Mukund and it goes on like a cycle.”

The schedule involves a session of endurance training early in the morning followed by a round of tennis in the afternoon. An evening session with emphasis on the technicalities of the game, like improving one’s serve, the ball toss among others, depending on each player’s want, concludes the day.

Good intensity

“In the past week, we had some good intensity,” says Mithun. “We need to maintain the same till the last day. The basic goal is to get everybody sharp and they should have hit enough balls before the tournament.”

“I have tried different things over the past years,” says Jeevan. “I have trained abroad. I have played a lot of tournaments before the Open. But this kind of conditioning camp is what I thinks works best. So I decided to do this.”

In the last five years, only Prakash Amritraj (2010 and 2013) and Ramkumar (2014) have made it past the qualifying rounds at the Open. The latter is now the third-best Indian singles player (world no. 244) and has been granted a wild card for the event. Yet, for him and those who are part of the qualifying campaign, which will see players ranked as high as the 90s, these preparations are of paramount importance, especially after a gruelling season.

“The wild card was a bonus,” Ramkumar says. “The aim is to keep my body fit and keep working. So I am here.”

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/tennis/emphasis-more-on-fitness-than-on-tennis-during-offseason/article6731091.ece

Pearson sends Blasters through

It was a victory which should have ideally been had rather easily. Instead, Kerala Blasters slept through almost the whole match, allowed Chennaiyin FC to stage a stirring comeback from 3-0 down before nudging a win through Stephen Pearson in the 117th minute to enter the Indian Super League final 4-3 on aggregate.

Both teams finished with 10 men, with James McAllister sent off for Kerala and player-manager Marco Materazzi for Chennai.

The match, except for the last five minutes, belonged to Chennaiyin throughout. Materazzi’s tactical acumen was on display when he shifted Bernard Mendy away from his defensive slot and pushed him up the right flank.

He placed himself in the centre of the midfield and in a departure from the past, pushed relentlessly forward. So much so that on occasions, he was the most advanced Chennaiyin player on the pitch.

It gave the home side an aerial threat in the box. The first evidence of this was in the 12th minute when Materazzi won a header and then flicked the ball behind for Jean-Eudes Maurice, whose shot was saved by the Blasters goalkeeper Sandip.

Passivity

Kerala hardly seemed like the side it was in the first leg. The entire team went into a shell and passivity seeped through its entirety. Such was its players’ reluctance to make things happen that McAllister was cautioned for time wasting as early as in the eighth minute.

And then on 28 minutes, a kick at Mendy’s legs earned him his second yellow and thereby the marching orders.

With a man up, Chennai attacked with verve. Mendy swung crosses at will from the right wing and Materazzi kept feeding long balls and charging forward.

It was also notable that Chennaiyin neither had Bruno Pelissari nor Elano in the starting eleven.

The absence of the two creative lynchpins should have prompted Kerala to at least press the midfield duo of Djemba-Djemba and Materazzi, who are not known to be effective ball-players. Instead, it lined up every man, except forward Iain Hume, behind the ball and allowed the host to launch attack after attack.

The home team opened the scoring with three minutes left in the first half when Mikael Silvestre headed in from Marco Materazzi’s perfect free-kick. When a penalty was given just after the restart, following a foul on Maurice by Sandesh Jhingan, Chennaiyin seemed right back in it.

But Materazzi, who was forced into a retake after Maurice charged into the box early, failed to convert.

The home team then brought both Elano and Pelissari to bolster its attack. An own goal by Jhingan with quarter of an hour to go, when his attempt to chest the ball down towards the ’keeper went awry, and the equaliser by Jeje Lalpekhlua after a wonderful cross from Mendy, who played much of the second half on the left flank, made an unlikely comeback loom.

Materazzi sent off

However, a red card to Materazzi on 104 minutes, followed by injuries to Harmanjot Khabra — who yet again was outstanding — and Maurice proved telling. Khabra and Maurice were both stationed on the right side and with their movement restricted, neither could stop Pearson from scoring from their end.

The result (Second leg):

Chennaiyin FC 3 (Silvestre 42, Jhingan-o.g. 76, Jeje 90) bt Kerala Blasters 1 (Pearson 117). Kerala Blasters wins 4-3 on aggregate.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/football/indian-super-league-2014-chennaiyin-fc-versus-kerala-blasters-fc-2nd-leg-semifinal/article6698339.ece