The plight of Indian tennis: The Whys, Whats and the Hows

t even one Indian tennis player is ranked inside top-300 in singles ATP chart.

t even one Indian player could earn direct entry into singles main draw of home ATP 250 event -- Tata Open Maharashtra. t even one Indian player, out of three, went beyond first round after being handed wild card entries.

t a single Indian player could make it to Australian Open qualifiers this year.

In contrast, re are 11 Indian doubles players in top-300 and four in top-100. Ar two are kcking on top-100 door.

Yuki Bhambri, singles prodigy who rose to number one rank in world in his junior days and also won a junior Slam, has also switched to doubles to prolong his career.

India is w largely a doubles tennis players nation.

ones who me an impact post Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupathi era like Yuki, Sumit Nagal, Prajnesh, Ramkumar, ne of m honed ir skills within Indian system.

Most of m played in different parts of Europe. Nagal h support from Bhupathi, who spotted his talent, while Ramkumar, for long, was supported by TNTA for his Barcelona training stint.

Yuki for his sheer talent h results going his way, so he didn't need much help from outside.

Prajnesh too was lucky in having backing of his far, who took care of every little thing that his son needed for his training and even pushed him to continue when Chennai southpaw was contemplating quitting after suffering knee stress fractures.

India does t have many ATP tournaments eir. One ATP 250 and a maximum of three-four Challengers and that too confined to only three states.

or states are still in deep slumber or ir officials go on foreign trips with national team when it takes courts for away team competitions.

India's next big hope, 15-year-old Manas Dhamne is also t training in country. For last two years he is honing his skills for vigours of very physical tennis world at Piatti Tennis Centre in Italy. He gets a large chunk of funds from MSLTA.

re have been private initiatives in past to help Indian players and latest one -- doubles dream -- is for doubles exponents only.

All this paints a very bleak picture of Indian tennis as far as singles game is concerned and in a way indicates that India should give up singles Grand Slam dream as of today.

re are several reasons for India to reach this st. most basic issues is that t every one and any one can pick up a tennis racquet and start playing tennis. t even for fun. That is why t many play this game even if y want to and re are reasons. It is restricted to a niche class.

Is it a common sight to see someone playing tennis in a rth Eastern city, Bihar, Uttar Presh or Punjab? answer is ''. But you can see youngsters playing cricket even in mountains or on a lonely barren patch of land.

Tennis equipments are t as accessible as or racquet sport like TT and bminton. t even for recreational purpose. You can play bminton in lanes of your colony but t tennis.

Everything related to tennis has a cost involved.

A beginner's level racquet costs Rs 4000. n gutting is required to change every week or so and that too involves cost, a minimum of Rs 600 each time you break strings on your racquet.

A can of three balls costs Rs 400 and a decent hitter will make balls unusable in one good session of hitting. n tennis courts are t available for free anywhere. You have to pre-book and pay.

At a DDA Sports Complex, a minimum of Rs 115 (natural light) and Rs 155 (under flood lights) is what you need to pay to book a tennis court for an hour. At a good facility like DLTA Complex, cost to book a tennis court is less than Rs 500 for an hour.

n you just can't buy racquet, book a court and start playing.

You need someone to guide you to play strokes. forehands and backhands look easy to play but re is whole science behind se shots. You have to bend your legs, go under ball, swing racquet in a certain way, roll ball using your wrists and pump just required power into shot. If t done, ball is never going to land inside lines.

Coaching too comes at a price. A decent tennis acemy will charge a minimum of Rs 5,000 per month and that too in Group session. Individual training will cost more. At a top tennis acemy, monthly training will cost less than Rs 25,000.

So even if one wants to play this sport for recreation purpose, one needs to invest at least Rs 10,000 every month. That's some amount for an Indian middle class family.

Heavy cost involved is one of reasons why 'Pdle' & 'Pickleball' are w being preferred over tennis in Europe and rth America. courts are smaller, balls are different (depressurised) in se two new variants of tennis.

And European and South American nations largely dominated ATP Challenger circuit in terms of winning titles in year 2022 with France standing atop with 46 titles, including 24 doubles.

Tennis is t a mass sport and unless it becomes one, availability of talent will remain an issue. bigger pool, better it is. Precisely reason India keep churning out world class cricketers.

This is a very basic yet significant part of problem Indian tennis is facing.

n come major issues: Specialised coaching, requirement of physiorapists and trainers for recovery, availability of right sports medicine experts and availability of eugh tournaments within country.

National Federation AITA often takes pride in conducting lot of coaching courses and bringing ITF and ATP tournaments to country. But it does t understand that it's t just number of coaches which will bring about a change in standard of playing.

existing coaches are required to be upgred too.

Also what will AITA boast of if state associations refuse to host ITF tournaments or ATP Challengers. state associations actually end up paying a certain royalty sum to AITA for hosting tournaments. So AITA should t take any credit for hosting se tournaments when it is actually making it tougher for states to host it by charging m a fee.

A big problem that Indian players are facing is lack of eugh ATP Challenger tournaments.

So far India have just three men's Challengers in a calendar year. Indians are required to travel to costly European nations and or parts across globe to earn ranking points and prize money. That burns a big hole in pocket, with or without success.

When was last time a big state association like DLTA hosted a Challenger? Having just nice people in se associations is t going to bring about any good change.

Plus, tennis is an individual sport where bringing all good players to train at a single centre is t feasible.

Possible Solutions:

A) First and foremost, tennis has to be me a mass sport. For that to happen, AITA must make an arrangement with schools across country that ensures that tennis courts are laid in school complex (wherever possible) and students are encourd to pick up sport.

re has to be an arrangement where racquets and balls are me available to school students at subsidised rates. Certified coaches should be involved in coaching.

Inter-school competitions in all states should be a must.

AITA can also introduce a gring system for private acemies on basis of ir infrastructure and coaching standard. That will help people in making informed choices when it comes to picking a tennis acemy.

B) An internal ATP Challenger circuit needs to be created. Why isn't it possible for 10 AITA affiliate units out of 23 to hosts one Challenger tournament each in a year? That will make a huge difference. Playing at home, eating food of choice keeps players keep players in more relaxed environment.

AITA will have to make n-performing state units accountable. re has to be a premium to stay as an affiliate.

C) players who have been re and done that, need to be involved.

amount of money can buy experience. players like Leander, Bhupathi, Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna, Somdev Devvarman need to be involved in some capacity where y can provide an expert opinion.

players are biggest stakeholders in any sport and ones who have proved mselves at biggest st, should be utilised.

re could be hundred or ways to bring about a revolution but re needs to be a start from some point. PTI AT AT KHS KHS