Mukherjea award

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Jay

could you give us more details on this award that Jaideep Mukherjea is recieving for davis cup.

[PKBasu]

This is a Lifetime Achievement award, and evidently Jaidip Mukerjea is the first Indian to receive it.
Congratulations to him.
But I must say I am bemused by the fact that Jaidip rather than Ramanathan Krishnan becomes the first Indian to get this award. Even if post-retirement contribution is taken account of, Krish led India to a second Davis Cup final in 1974, while Mukerjea's best run as non-playing captain was to the semi-final. And Krish's career record in Davis Cup was unmatched by anyone else from India -- although Vijay (who actually was a singles+doubles playing member of two Indian Davis Cup final teams in 1974 and 1987) comes close, as does Leander.

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Davis cup records

Krishnan 69-28
Mukerjea 62-35
Paes 66-29
Lall 58-29
Vijay 45-28
Anand 32-31
Ramesh 29-21

[PKBasu]

In comparing across generations, it is also worth remembering that until the early 1980s, Davis Cup didn't have the tiering system that now exists (eg, World Group and Zonals). Everybody played the zonal rounds (except the previous year's champion team that only played the Challenge Round or the final), then moved to the playoffs -- QF, SF, F and/or Challenge Round. In Ramesh's era, we were almost always in the World Group, so the quality of the opposition he faced was higher. RK Sr. and Vijay got to play a lot of zonal rounds (in Asia against Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, etc., plus a final round often against Australia), but India often did make it into the play-off rounds (equivalent of today's World Group), especially in RK Sr's time. In Vijay's time, the elimination of the Challenge Round meant that Australia was always an obstacle in the final round of zonal competition (and NZ under Onny Parun was another obstacle). Ironically ofcourse, the 1973-83 period (when Vijay was in his prime) was the weakest period in Aussie tennis history, during which just one Aussie (Mark Edmondson, at the 1975 AO) won a Grand Slam singles title. In 1974, ofcourse, India won an epic zonal final round over Australia, then beat Russia (led by Wimbledon finalist Metreveli) in the semis before conceding the final to South Africa (who India boycotted during the apartheid era).

[Rishav]

cograt mr.mukherjea!

[PKBasu]

Perhaps we can convert this into a Jaideep Mukerjea thread...
Jaideep Mukerjea reached the Wimbledon junior singles final in 1960. He also made the men's singles pre-quarterfinal stage four times -- in 1963, '64, '66 and '73 -- and made the men's doubles quarterfinal thrice (in '66 and '73 with Premjit Lall, and in 1967 with Ramanathan Krishnan).

He also had a distinguished Davis Cup career, in which he Won 62, lost 35 matches in all. DC singles highlights included defeating Juan Gisbert ('65 interzonal final in Barcelona; Gisbert was AO runner-up in '68), both Buding and Bungert ('66 interzonal final) and Australia's Crealy ('70 Eastern final; his match against Ruffels was unfinished at 6-6 in the fifth set!). There was little to choose between Mukerjea and Lall's Cup careers (almost exact equals), although Mukerjea had marginally more success in Davis Cup doubles with Krish Sr. The highlight of course was Mukerjea and Krish beating Newcombe and Roche in the Davis Cup final in 1966.

[insideout]

Congratulations to Jaidip Mukerjea

[Sandeep]

ArvindKumar, Jaidip got this award in 2003 I guess. But congratulations can never be late.

[insideout]

I got tot see this thread late . And i had always wanted to congratulate him

[PKBasu]

I met Jaidip Mukerjea briefly at Wimbledon a week ago (outside Court 5 while Leander and Zimo were playing their R2 match). When I introduced him to my daughter by saying he was a 4-time prequarterfinalist in singles and three-time doubles quarterfinalist, he said "Hey, you know my record better than I do.." .

[Rajiv]

good,lucky you pkb
so how did talk about grass couts tourney in bengal progress , last what we heard you were trying desperatly to get hold of him
keep us informed as it will be another coup by the forum members.

[gvhvhg]

HAHA PKB---You are an encyclopedia.

[PKBasu]

good,lucky you pkb
so how did talk about grass couts tourney in bengal progress , last what we heard you were trying desperatly to get hold of him
keep us informed as it will be another coup by the forum members.

After the initial pleasantries, I immediately broached that topic with him!
He expressed some interest (but to be played at his academy, I think, rather than the grass courts I was suggesting...), and said we should meet for a drink afterwards. I should have taken down his other contact details, because I couldn't spot him again after that initial contact. But I will certainly try to track him down again soon...

[PKBasu]

Nottingham has been the happy hunting ground for Indian tennis players this year, with Harsh Mankad making the SF of the Nottingham challenger (while Prakash Amritraj made the QF), then Harsh qualifying into the ATP tour event in Nottingham (and coming within a whisker of beating then-#42 Kenneth Carlsen in the main draw), and recently Sunil Kumar and Shruti Dhawan each did reasonably in a Futures there.

But here's going back to 1973. Chiradeep Mukerjea made the QF of the Nottingham ATP tour event (a tournament in which Jimmy Connors made the SF that year):
http://www.atptennis.com/en/tournaments ... es=Singles

Chiradeep always played as an amateur, but he was probably one of the world's best amateurs in those days.

[PKBasu]

Incidentally, other than Wimbledon, Jaideep Mukherjea had notable success in some of the other Slams as well. In 1962, he made the singles PQF (fourth round) of the US championships and also made the PQF (R3 in a 64-man field) of the Australian Open that year. He reached the same stage (PQF) at the French championships in 1965.
His other Wimbledon achievements have been mentioned in an earlier post, but he made the singles PQF of both Wimbledon and French championships in 1966, AND also played a key role in India making the Davis Cup final that year.