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New Delhi: As Sania Mirza sets up to end her quite remarkable career in international tennis, two thing immediately come to mind. For one, it has been quite a run for the Indian tennis star, given that she began playing Grand Slam tennis at 18, in Melbourne in 2005 and has been a viable competitor for so long. The second, and much less flattering, point is that this doesn’t at all reflect on tennis in India that the senior players have not been replaced with any conviction with any of the younger lot. As and when Sania leaves (social media grapevine says she may still well play a couple of tournaments in and around Dubai before finally signing off), India will now have little or no representation at the top level, or even in lesser WTA events.
Most people in India, if was asked to name three players who have represented the country in tennis, would come to a grinding halt after one name – Sania Mirza.
It is not like there haven’t been others – beginning from Nirupama Vaidyanathan, Manisha Malhotra, right down to the present day, with names like Riya Bhatia, Rutuja Bhosale, Ankita Raina and Sowjanya Bavisetti (the four who represented India at the Billie Jean Cup in 2022) do not ring bells. Nor does Karman Kaur Thandi, who at one stage promised to be the next big thing in Indian tennis.
Not that the men’s side is doing any better. From the hoary days of Ramanathan Krishnan, Jaydip Mukerjea, Premjit Lal and Akhtar Ali to when Vijay Amritraj became the star and also set up a formidable doubles partnership with brother Anand. Then, and even in the days of Ramesh Krishnan, India were viable as a tennis entity and three Davis Cup finals attest to that.
The big prizes at Grand Slam level came through Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna. Paes, with 18 Grand Slam titles (double and mixed doubles) heads the pack with Bhupathi notching up 12 (in the same events) and Bopanna, who has played a lot of finals (including the just-concluded Australia Open final with Sania) and semi-finals, has a French Open mixed doubles title to his name.
But then you have names like Yuki Bhambri, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, R. Ramkumar and Divij Sharan, who very honestly are just making up the numbers.
Suffice it to say that Bopanna, at 42, is now India’s best hope in tennis.
This yawning chasm between those who have left or will leave soon and those who were supposed to fill in those slots is so big that one can safely say that Indian tennis will see a serious drought of any presence at the ATP or WTA level for a very long time indeed.
Even the seniors have seen the merit of playing doubles and mixed doubles a long time ago, since none of them really made any impact in the singles format.
So, we will have to be happy with Sania, Paes, Bhupathi and Bopanna have achieved. A wait for the next flag-bearer of Indian tennis will be quite an extended one.
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