Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholarship

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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholar

Post by sameerph »

Omkara wrote:Apparently some coach in US told him that we would never get a 17-18 year Grand Slam champion ever
Agreed. The average age on both mens & womens tours has been going up of late. Therefore, it makes eminent sense in most of the Indian players taking the college tennis route. ( except the ultra talented ones like Yuki).

My only fear is none of the Indians on womens side so far have taken this route & come back & did well on pro tour. ( although lots of men have done it). So, how Rutuja, Ratnika, Kanika , Ambika will do will set the pattern for Indian girls in the future.
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholar

Post by Atithee »

There were many other videos posted next to Ambika's. I didn't realize this is the way you approch schools for tennis scholarships. Pretty good. I'm glad that Mr. Pande knows about it.

To compare Ambika's game against her competition for a spot in the US colleges, I clicked on this one (random choice). Look at it. If you were a recruiter, what do you see? If you are Ambika, what should you see?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuO0Jo_nkdQ

Frankly, the facilites Ambika was playing at (assuming it is in India), were quite good. I'm not sure the complaint about a lack of infrastructure is a huge impediment today. In some ways, as long as you have access to courts, tennis is relatively a cheap game, even in India. Physical fitness is completely in your control. Why should our girls be so fragile? I can't see a reason. There is enough free information available on the internet. There are diet consultants in India. It is quite simple -- eat a proper diet and follow a physical fitness routine. On this one, I cannot cut any slack to Indian kids. It is hard work but it can be done. Yes, coaching can be expensive although I question a need for very expensive coaches at this stage when your goal is to enter a US college where you will get proper coaching. But it is likely no more expensive than the IIT-JEE coaching/tutoring that is fashionable (or a must per my family sources). The key is that you must mean business -- give it 100% -- you cannot be in two minds at this stage. Of course, it is easier said than done in India, where education is your (only) key to success. But, then again, it is probably no different in eastern European nations, which are the treadmill of tennis talent coming on world stage.
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholar

Post by PKBasu »

Leander's father is a doctor and sportsman (and, in fact, a sports-medicine specialist) so he had the best possible at-home advice on fitness issues -- and it shows. Perhaps what he lacked was tennis-specific coaching of a high calibre (despite his long stint at the Britannia Amritraj Tennis academy). But it worked out reasonably well for him (although perhaps a year or two in a US college might have put the finishing touches to his game and attitude to life outside tennis).

Among the crop of young Indian women tennis players, Kanika comes from a sporting family (her grandmother was national badminton MxD champ!) and her father is a trained doctor. Physically, she is nearly 6' tall and built like a sportswoman, with huge attention paid to her diet, nutrition, physical achievement levels (speed around court, serve velocity, etc.). I was initially surprised by her choice of Columbia U (which is a strong academic school, but not one known for its sports), but even here she has Bidyut Goswami as the head of the coaching program and a Filipina who played on the pro circuit as assistant women's coach. She appears to have many of the ingredients available to her make it as a tennis pro; but let us wait and watch!
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholar

Post by Ram »

Talking of Bid Goswami. I was visiting US last week and happened to be in NY and by chance I heard that college tennis final was going on nearby. It was a sunday and I promptly decided to spend time there. Columbia Univ won the Men's Doubles title and was quite impressed with the coaching staff's involvement including that of Mr.Goswami. Also had a brief chat with him. So Columbia seems to be a good place for tennis also.

ps.Thanks to this forum I came to know later on the exploits of Goswami as a player.
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholar

Post by Omkara »

The worry with most parents is that with only tennis one cannot plan a career. Hence going to college is a must. Plus everyone is peaking at 25-26. So take time off, invest in something long term and keep the focus of tennis. Beyond this one needs support from parents and sponsors to continue...
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholar

Post by eastind »

I agree with Omkara.
For guys who dont get sponsorship or help from the federation it makes sense to get a college education in India or in the US. Also the time spent will also ensure that the players mature mentally and physically.
After they get a degree then you can try 2-3 years on the Protour and see if you make it. If you can then good or otherwise you still have a degree that you can fall back to get a job.
Also now there are more carrer options too and the time spent on the courts are not a total waste of time.
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholarship

Post by jaydeep »

18 yrs old Alex Solanki is also trying crowdfunding for the support ... He has been trying to raise Rs. 500,000 from it.

Alex Solanki - Tennis (Small support can make me a big tennis star)
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholarship

Post by suresh »

Assuming he raises the required funds. Will 5 lakhs be enough?
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholarship

Post by jaydeep »

I doubts.
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholarship

Post by VReddy »

I had noticed a similar campaign for Velavan Senthilkumar about 2 weeks back: https://www.indiaforsports.com/campaign ... nthilkumar

Seeing that Velevan was Jr.1, already winning most of his matches against the 60-100 ranked players and almost all the previous 10 yr Jr. British Open winners are in the top-20 in PSA - It didn't make sense for me why he was struggling for funds (didn't want a Yuki scenario repeating again). I wanted to enquire details around their attempts with Sponsors, Sports Trusts (say like OGQ), Squash Federation, local Govt and so on. Also why the fundraiser now when the chap is just about to leave to Columbia University.

I messaged before and called the person listed on a Saturday. My intention was to take care of the whole through a tax deductible charity. The call was disastrous. The person incharge was a marketing student (supposedly takes care of Ghoshal too, didn't bother verifying)- the first thing I was asked was if there are opportunities in my workplace in Zürich for his profile. Then for the rest of the questions - no clear responses, for really pointed questions - I would get a response that he would check with Velevan and get back. Inspite of all this when I said I will take care of the funding but not through indiaforsports as it is not a tax deductible charity (as I wanted to have my workplace match the donation) - the person opened up more and it was equal/more important for him to have the campaign a success and that outside of the campaign, he could easily approach the sponsors to get the funding (and here I was .. offering that I will take care of that amount). He kept citing the example of the Ice Hockey team and how he wanted to have the same phenomenon created here and get the necessary branding for Velevan through that. At the end, gauging my tone - the chap says that any funding that I do for Velevan, he should be kept in the loop as this is not charity and he needs to get his share of the money!!

Just wanted to share this so that we do our own due diligence. Now we have campaigns like Yuki where I wish we could have done something and on the other hand, campaigns like Velavan where if the truth comes out in the open would be more damaging for the player and the platform which is hosting these campaigns without due diligence. Solanki's campaign am guessing would more likely fall into the bucket of Yuki but I felt its important to share.
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholarship

Post by Atithee »

Vishnu, this is disturbing yet not surprising. The ugly truth however is that all campaigns take a cut no matter what the route. Especially in sports where the entire team is dependent upon sharing a portion of the winnings.
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholarship

Post by VReddy »

Sorry I was not clear. I am perfectly fine with indiaforsports.com as the platform taking the cut. The concern for me is that I spoke to the personal marketing agent of Velevan (not a indiaforsports.com employee as such).

The campaign appears to be not as necessary from the funds perspective (he is going to the University now anyway) but is being used more as a tool to raise his profile - which I felt is a bit unethical (atleast in my point of view) when lot of individuals are putting in their hard-earned savings towards this.
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholarship

Post by Atithee »

Not sure what is wrong or unethical in this but I may be missing something. A 17-18 yr old has almost no financial acumen let alone marketing skills. Image building is key to attracting sponsors. Looks like you're taking exception to the fact that the funds are being appropriated to a different objective than the stated or purported one. I can see how you might see this as unethical.
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholarship

Post by Sin Hombre »

It is hard to call it unethical, agreed.

Staying on topic, I am happy to help out world class talents like Yuki was but not the likes of Solanki. In all honesty, a monetarily profitable tennis professional career is already beyond him.
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Re: Turn pro at 18 yrs or go to US college on tennis scholarship

Post by VReddy »

Same stance for me too vis-a-vis Yuki & Solanki.

Regd unethical: I spoke from a donor perspective. Lot of those donations are less than Rs 5k and so most likely comes from middle-class folks. But I guess I am the odd one out usually in these aspects :p
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