It was only for a short while, but on Monday morning Yuki Bhambri gave the sixth best tennis player on the planet a bit of a runaround.
In the opening set of their first round match, Bhambri had Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic at five games apiece. India’s tennis followers, tuning in early morning to the contest wondered – could he pinch a set here? Stretch this to five sets? Create an upset?
And then, in a matter of minutes, a brutal reality check arrived.
As top pros often do against a feisty underdog, Berdych turned it up a notch. He took the first set 7-5 and scorched through 12 of the next 15 games to clinch the match in well under two hours.
On the first Monday morning of the first Grand Slam of the year, India’s singles challenge – men and women – was over. The focus, as always, would now turn to the doubles draw where several Indian players will be in contention over the next couple of weeks.
23-year old Bhambri is ranked 96 on the ATP computer. He is the only Indian in the top 100. Three others, Somdev Devvarman, Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanthan, featured in the qualifying draw for the Australian Open but none progressed. An all too familiar storyline, uninspiring and mediocre, has unfolded.
Not since Ramesh Krishnan reached a career high of 23 in 1985, has an Indian been among the top 50 men’s players in the world. While a plethora of doubles slams have been pocketed, singles success hasn’t merely been elusive – with each passing year it appears even more distant with the emergence of sparkling talent in distant corners of the world.
Gaurav Natekar, 1994 Asian Games Gold MedalistWhile it is not their fault, India’s doubles success has meant players are giving up on their singles ambitions too soon. You can’t blame them. They have to choose between a struggle in singles and possibly greater chance of success in doubles.
The problems though are more deep rooted and can be traced to a shaky system that has steadily decayed. Former Davis cup coach Enrico Piperno remembers a time, as recently as 15 years ago, when highly competitive tournaments were played across India over a four-month period. These events have been abandoned altogether as have programmes that allowed junior players to tour Europe, the power centre of the modern game, in the summer months.
Ironically, for all the problems, tennis remains a hugely popular sport across the country with kids thronging to academies. Piperno, who has spent a lifetime teaching the game, points to the standard of coaching at these mushrooming centres as another malaise afflicting the game in India.
Enrico Piperno, Former Davis Cup CoachWhile the number of coaches has increased, their quality has declined. The culture of the game in India has gone from being club-centric to academy-centric. We have over 5000 coaches in India now, it seems almost anyone can become a coach.
Players such as Bhambri, whose elder sisters also played competitively, have reached as far as they have on the back of untiring support from their family. Since winning the junior Australian Open in 2009, his progress has been stuttering. Bhambri has won a few challenger events, beaten top 50 players a couple of times but hasn’t made a dazzling leap.
Gaurav Natekar, 1994 Asian Games gold MedalistGiven that he doesn’t have a big weapon in his game, Yuki has done a very good job to get this far. But for him to go beyond the top 70 or 80, he has to stay injury-free and get fitter.
Before Bhambri, Devvarman offered hope of a competitive Indian presence on the circuit, reaching a career high ranking of 62 in 2011. A product of the extremely competitive American collegiate system, Devvarman’s counter-punching style of play delivered promising early results but once injuries started to take their toll, he fizzled out and has now slumped to 173.
Enrico Piperno, Former Davis Cup CoachIn my view Somdev actually overachieved. He was a grinder, and those kind of players don’t last forever, they tend to get overpowered these days.
The reality is stark and inescapable. Indian tennis fans will have to make do with doubles glory for the foreseeable future. And celebrate the odd occasion, like on Monday, when Yuki Bhambri stretched the world number six for just a little bit.