India Challenger100s, February-March 2023

[rajitghosh]

Among the politicans Bhupender Hooda from Haryana was passionate about tennis and once even played an exhibition set with Boris Becker. Not sure how much he contributed to administration though. Leander is a member of the TMC but again not sure whether he is very active.

But non-BJP politicians like Hooda (congress) and any from parties like TMC may not be able to do much right now for anything of national significance. Probably need a BJP politician, and I am unable to think of many. Maybe only Fadnavis.

I don't completely agree that it has to be a BJP politician only. Naveen Babu has done a great job for hockey. The TMC supremo is a great supporter of sports. She is there everywhere from dancing with Shahrukh when KKR wins to kicking a football before a Mohun Bagan-East Bengal match to getting sportpeople to campaign for her and preventing famous sportpeople from joining rival parties. At one time Karti Chidambaram did support TN tennis. Alas Bengal has lost its tennis tradition completely. The city that produced Dilip Bose, Naresh Kumar, Jaidip Mukerjea, Premjit Lall and Leander Paes now has no tennis player. The coaching programs in the clubs are a joke and money making machines rather than having anything to do with serious tennis.

[Rajiv]

Probably need a BJP politician, and I am unable to think of many. Maybe only Fadnavis.

Apart from Phadnavis whom I mentioned earlier , the other BJP guy is our eminent peerless Davis Cup captain , Shri Rohit Rajpalji, but Mr Rajpal even remotely doesn't have any role in Tennis development, but only to keep the players in good humour gets them some deals and inducts them in the Govt sponsered TOPS scheme through his political connections which is basically a total waste of tax payers money and laughable that they can get Olympic medals and basically it just becomes another avenue of regular income for the players without showing any significant or noticeable results.

[jayakris]

I don't completely agree that it has to be a BJP politician only. Naveen Babu has done a great job for hockey. The TMC supremo is a great supporter of sports. She is there everywhere from dancing with Shahrukh when KKR wins to kicking a football before a Mohun Bagan-East Bengal match to getting sportpeople to campaign for her and preventing famous sportpeople from joining rival parties. At one time Karti Chidambaram did support TN tennis.

It is only because BJP is in power at the centre that I said it would help for it to be a BJP politician. What we need is something big at a national level. Sort of an alternative to AITA's plans (or one where AITA has no choice but to go along). Mamata Bannerjee probably cannot do that at this time, though I agree that LP doing something with her support to simply get Kolkata tennis going again itself would be most welcome. Notice that Karti did his TN work and was almost becoming nationally important in tennis when Congress lost power and he was out of the scene. For now, it would be easier for a BJP politician to do something, and we need something done without delay. Indian tennis is in big trouble. If it can be support from across multiple parties, that is even better though, from a longer-term perspective. And I think the current opposition has more tennis supporters already.

Again, as I said above, this is all just amateur thinking from me. The real politics and raising funds from the right sponsors is much more complex,and I have no clue on any of that.

[sameerph]

Opportunities for at least 3 Indian teams to get some doubles points since 4 teams involving international players have withdrawn from the draw, including the top seeds Purcell and Polmans. Perhaps, Prajnesh and Mukund should sign up and get some more match practice considering neither of them are traveling outside of India for the foreseeable future (Indian M25 Futures series starting March 6th - although Prajnesh hasn’t entered the M25 Delhi).

Prajnesh and Mukund did sign up with different partners and both won their R1 matches. Prajnesh along with Serbian Boris Butulija and Mukund along with Vishnu. Total of 9 Indian players are doubles QF - 3 all Indian pairs- VSP/Aniruddh, Mukund-Vishnu and Niki-Rithvik ( who got their first challenger win) and 3 other Indian players with foreign partners- Prajnesh, Arjun and Purav.

QF line up-
Mukund/Vishnu vs Australian pair
Prajnesh/Boris vs Japanese pair
Aniruddh/VSP vs Purav/Nouza
Arjun/Neuchrist vs Niki-Rithvik

[Dinesh]

I watched the Mukund/Vishnu match and it was annoying to listen to Mukund calling “you” for every single return while the ball was clearly going to Vishnu’s side of the court.

[jayakris]

^^^ I think all Indian players annoy us these days because they are not winning in singles ... We have all become (me included) quite grumpy about it!

[Rajiv]

Had some glimmer of hope at these 3 big home Challengers but all of which came to nought.
We are now like a sophisticated version of Pakistan Tennis and our players are like glorified versions of Aqeel Khan's whom we have no choice but to fall upon them as like Pakistan we don't have any back up juniors to fill up the void.
Ofcourse the scenario is not literally as that of Pakistan, but surely the template is quite similar.

And as a default have to look at dbls which honestly doesn't interest me much (don't even know exactly which and how many GS doubles LP/MB won )and cannot expect the same missionary zeal like following the Singles.

[knarayen]

I too am at a complete loss, and saddened by the current situation. There has to be a silver lining somewhere that we all can latch onto. We have learned on the court to fight till the very last point and to never ever get discouraged. That is the kind of thinking we need now.

As a tennis community, we need to rally around the players of Manas Dhamne’s age group and help them in every which way, money, driving them to events, hosting them and their co-travelers in our homes etc.

[jayakris]

^^^ Have to agree. It is a desperate situation, but we cannot give up and need to somehow make a comeback in the third set. Not just players of Manas' age. Right now, the players of the age 16 to 23 are "all floating like aimless kites" (to use the unforgettable line from Jaideep Mukherjea some 27 years ago). At least one or two of them each from the men's and women's side have got to be of potential but we don't even know. No advice or coaching at the national level, no plans, no sponsorship schemes, nothing.

[jayakris]

It is only because BJP is in power at the centre that I said it would help for it to be a BJP politician. What we need is something big at a national level. Sort of an alternative to AITA's plans (or one where AITA has no choice but to go along)
...
For now, it would be easier for a BJP politician to do something, and we need something done without delay. Indian tennis is in big trouble. If it can be support from across multiple parties, that is even better though, from a longer-term perspective. And I think the current opposition has more tennis supporters already.

When I was saying all this, I forgot that the AITA president right now is a BJP politician. Nobody knows or remembers who the president is, that's all. Dr. Anil Jain, BJP Rajyasabha MP. Nice man, I think. But AITA always continues to bring in nice guy politicians from tennis circles, and nice guys from the real political world too. They all get along very nicely. They upset nobody. At least nobody who matters, which naturally does not include tennis players. Anil Khanna is always there to keep the decades-old "family" traditions. Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu with all of them.

There is never any elections or anything in AITA. Oh no, that will be politics. We are not some AIFF or VFI to play petty power politics. We are a solid national federation that goes about doing its job at a focused gastropod pace. We are not into making news with internal fights. We believe in karRmaNyEvAdhikaraste, ma phalEshu kadAchan. We go about doing our duty, and never look for results. Results may come. Or there may be no results, like now. Our duty is not to care anyway. But petty fights? oh no. If anybody has critical comments, we will just make them a vice president, so he or she can also do OUR duty and avoid any friction. Wait, I should say "he". There is no "she". But I digress.

The general secretary and treasurer run the congenial group's work with a traditional "wise man" (everybody knows who that is) directing them. He might have been the President before and even a "Life President" when somebody else had to be made the president... Not sure how a life president becomes a vice president later. Life is short, so enjoy the short periods of "life". Why care for ego-based titles? And in a collegial family, why must such questions be even asked? It is not like they are all doing anything wrong (or anything at all) - like stealing money, which is something nobody has dared to prove against them all, you know.

If you are wondering who all are in this big happy family - this article has the list. Vijay Amritraj is also vice president, but he probably doesn't remember how many things he is a VP of, around the world. I think there are about 85 vice presidents in AITA. Okay, maybe I exaggerate, but I am probably close. They have even had honorary presidents, if the political situation required it. SM Krishna (Congress) and Yashwant Sinha (then BJP) were life presidents once. So, sometimes there is an honorary president. Sometimes a life president. Sometimes no precedent for anything, but why does that matter? Like I said, "saRvam shubham" with the nice big family.

It is just a group of tennis lovers who bleed for Indian tennis, who are not looking for a name for themselves. They all have made some names for themselves already. Some from even tennis, having played a match or two at some point; which I am sure must surprise you! (No, I am not referring to Vijay here, as you all know). By the way, the bank account is always secure and they waste no money by doing anything much. Right now Rohit Rajpal must be keeping the bank account as treasurer, I believe. Nice guy former player, he too.

They even have meetings, with nice catered chai, vada and pkhoras, I reckon. I am not sure if they get more beverages for higher spirit. If they do, there is no problem there either. Toilets are there at AITA headquarters. The toilets work too. I can guarantee it. Indian tennis has recorded experience of going down in a spiral there, to mucho cheers. And oh... No female toilets. You see AITA saves money. They don't need that. if there are no females, they can save taxpayers' money from being wasted! (Tailpiece here: Even the pakhoras were not bought with taxpayer money. Our bank account is safe. They are good at generating good corporate sponsorship for such things... Sometimes that is even used for tennis, so don't worry)

The general secretary seems to be another very nice gentleman, and he too has played some tennis in one of India's unquestioned tennis hotbeds, Madhya Pradesh. Indian tennis daily interviewed him and he minced no words in describing the current situation, a few months ago. A straight shooter. "Q:How would you evaluate the current state of Tennis in India as it stands? Ans: I believe that it’s fantastic".

You see, you all don't get it. You need to be positive, and the AITA general secretary gets it!

Draupadi (Indian Tennis) laments: Oh Lord, where are you when even my last sari is about to be pulled out by this big family of nice brothers, and I don't have even a toilet to run to?

[jayakris]

At the Bengaluru M100,

[QF] (2) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Maximilian Neuchrist (AUT) d. Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli (IND)/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND), 61 63
[QF] (Alt) Boris Butulija (SRB)/ Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) l. (5) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Kaito Uesugi (JPN), 57 46
[QF] (Alt) Mukund Sasikumar (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) d. Calum Puttergill (AUS)/ Dane Sweeny (AUS), 62 63
[QF] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) d. (4) Petr Nouza (CE)/ Purav Raja (IND), 62 62

So, on Friday,

[SF] (2) Arjun Kadhe (IND)[/color]/ Maximilian Neuchrist (AUT) vs Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND)
[SF] (5) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Kaito Uesugi (JPN) vs (Alt) Mukund Sasikumar (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND)

At least one Indian will be in the finals of doubles. We are reduced to thanking the Lord for small mercies.

[sameerph]

So, Niki-Rithvik 25 match winning streak broken. At least they get 20 points which is double than than what they get for winning a 15K futures.

Hope they get going on challenger tour soon.

[sameerph]

Aniruddh and VSP are in their second successive challenger final.

[SF] (Alt) Mukund Sasikumar (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l. (5) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Kaito Uesugi (JPN) 26 57

[SF] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) d. (2) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Maximilian Neuchrist (AUT) 40 retd.

Last week they fell in a very close match in STB. Hope they can that change tomorrow.

[Dinesh]

Go AniJay!!!

[Dinesh]

[F] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) 6-1 4-6 10-3 Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Kaito Uesugi (JPN)

Congrats to AniJay for their first Challenger title. Anirudh is now the 8th ranked Indian in the doubles list, sitting at a career-high of #144, while VSP at a new CH- of #168.