$10K UK Womens ITF events - August 05

[Florian Buechting]

Hi,
bad luck: I am away and our girls loose Hope that Sanaa will do well, I enjoyed watching her very much. Here are some facts about my chat to the players:

Let me start with Radhika, as many of you were quite interested in her. She said, she did not play very much last year due to her educational situation, but she will play more tournaments in the future again. As far as I know, she will be play Nottingham next week - and she told me she will be playing some tournaments in India in October (?).

Some things I chatted about with the Bhambris, especially with Ankita (Sanaa is more shy, but at least she remembered we met two years ago...). We talked quite long about their situation as tennis professionals and so on. I am not sure whether I may publish exact amounts in this forum, but their parents pay about the annual gross salary you get in Germany (!) as an University Mathematician - for each, Sanaa and Ankita. Quite a mass of money - and of course, on the other hand, they don't earn much by playing tennis. Even if Sanaa wins this week, she will get some 1,200 USD price money - that will be about what they need to get from London to Helsinki and pay a one-week accomodation, food and so on. On the other hand, winning the doubles draw in a 10k future gives you really nothing - I am not sure about the numbers, but it will be something like 500 bucks quite likely - of course, per team. No other earnings, their only sponsor is Lotto who gives them their clothes and equipment. Just becuase to save some bucks (I think it is some 10 pounds per day), they did not stay in the tournament accomodation, but in a guesthouse in a far-away-part of London which made them travel one hour to the venue and another one back to the guesthouse including some longer walks. Wow, this is really tough, especially if you remember that Sanaa is just and Ankita is - they have to travel around all by themselves (at least, they are sisters and can accompany themselves, always have somebody to share a double room and stuff like that).

These girls are our number 4 and 5 regarding the singles ranking and #5 and #6 in doubles - but there is no way for them to at least pay their expenses by playing tennis. They are really nice people and Indian sisters in the great world of tennis representing one of the world's largest country, but there is no way to find a sponsor for him. And by the way (that's what I already talked about with Shruti): price money in the ladies tournaments is mainly lower than in mens tennis (or at least, the 10k tourneys have better entry lists in ladies tennis as there is no large number of challengers...) and you don't have that much hospitality events which keep the players expenses lower.

Just some thoughts about professional ladies tennis, which I think we should always keep in mind when we critize players if they are having bad results (apart from that, results are not important anyway as long as the players are improving...). It is really a tough job - and if you are no top-150 ladies players or maybe some top-250 or top-300 for the mens, there is no way to earn money as a "tennis pro". As you already know, Sanaa and Ankita head to Helsinki next, I forgot to ask them about future plans.

Unfortunately, Shruti was not on the ground yesterday, so I could not take some pictures of her. At least, let me add that this was a fantastic week and it was really nice to meet our girls. Radhika and Oormila are very, very nice people, of course, I enjoyed to meet the other girls very much, too. Maybe I might even help the girls by these reports and by my pictures and reports on my website (I am sorry, I will just manage to present them tomorrow, not today...) to attract some more attention to our great-fighting tennis girls apart from Sania and Shika.

Yours,
Florian

[jayakris]

I feel like crying.. Nicely written Florian .. But what can we do? -- this is the situation with regard to sponsorship in India (and actually it is not a whole lot different in other places either; the tennis tour, below top-250 in the mens and below top-175 in women's is a money-losing propostion).

I wish at least some of the players would try to take up on some goodwill from some of the people here and try to make some schedules to go and play in some places where they don't have to spend a lot. It won't help a whole heck of a lot, but even if they can all add an extra 4-5 weeks of foreign plans with all our help, it would be great.

Yeah, I know, we can all put in some $100 each and could raise funds, but I know that won't work - and who gets what etc becomes the question. The players need to also do some extra on their part with at least some initiative to contact us if they think any of us would be of help.

In many cases when I hosted somebody it is after I wrote to them asking whether they would like help. When we don't even know where they are planning to play, we cannot even do that.

Jay

[amr090]

Yeah its too bad...we should have talked to florian to talk to them about planning their events close to where we have forum members...this is how things all got started with harsh.


if you look at what a dire situation he was in last year...i think the forum members helped him out greatly to some extent with pkb coming up with the financial support, the rest of us coming up with moral support, and guys like sks, jay and others housing him whenever possible.

its not much, but from our side its what we can do...i think if we could get in touch with sanaa and ankita perhaps some of the forum members who have families could host them if they plan their tournaments near where there are families. not sure if theyd be comfortable with this since theyre girls and all, but it would definitely save them a bit monetarily and in addition give them some moral support.

as florian said the tour is a lonely place especially if you are fighting out in the 200s and below.



at the very least even if theyre not comfortable about staying with a family..if they plan their trips near forum families we can at least support them...verbally
jay, bhushanji, pkb...and others...any ideas?

[amr090]

wow just checked out florian's pics first time ive seen sanaa and ankita and they both look really athletic especially ankita....hope they start moving up soon and we see them up there with sania, shikhs and neha..

[jayakris]

Tell me about it .. I have been waiting for Ankita for way too long .. She is really the one with all the abilities to be right up there with Sania and Shikha ..

She needs to somehow play a bunch of events on the trot, get her game totally going and take it from there. Come on girl - come to the US for a tour; we will take care of you - I guess .. well .. somehow .. I think .. can't we?

Jay

[amr090]

Is there any we we (read you ) can get in touch with her...they never seem to come this way...

[PKBasu]

Jay, please let Sanaa and Ankita know (if you can get in touch with them) that they have a home in Malaysia or Singapore if they want to play any Futures or Challengers here.

[Sandeep]

Tell me about it .. I have been waiting for Ankita for way too long .. She is really the one with all the abilities to be right up there with Sania and Shikha ..

I don't know about along with Sania ot Shikha but I too like Ankita's game. She has some good powerful shots.

I am not all that excited about Sana's game though. I feel he is very defenive.

Jay, did you see any of them play?

[PKBasu]

Thanks (belatedly) for those wonderful reports, Florian, and especially the interviews with Ankita, etc., that were very moving.
I think Ankita and Sanaa are really worth supporting now. They are on the cusp of making it in women's tennis, but it will be impossible for them to do so unless they are able to get some sponsorship. Let's see what we can do. I will start contacting some Indian corporates and see where we can go with this.

[jaydeep]

After reading this I become speechless ... Feeling sad how much these gals r trying to give their 100% and how much their family suffer to fulfill our childrens dream ... Player under 200 ranks always have testing time ... But really we can do some bits and pieces for these players ... With help of from forum members or our family members we can always arrange stays for these gals .... But Jay mentioned correctly that we need to know their scheduling ... Somehow they manages us to tell tournaments where they r participating can help us to check possibilities of arranging staying for these gals.

If Florian somehow manages to ask them to check our forum and get their mail ids ... That will really help us to contact them and we also feel that we r going towards right direction to help them.

Florian thanks for ur deeply moving report and chat ... Nice to know that Radhika is planning to play more tournaments ... I think in october she must be planning to play futures in Pune and Mumbai ... Though not sure about it.

Hoping somehow these gals check our forum and help us to help them to achieve their respective goals.

Jaydeep.

[Florian Buechting]

Hi,
first of all, I just uploaded the last two pictures and reports - of course, you may find them on my website www.sport-live.net or www.tennis-foto.de

Ankita said she would contact me by mail because they wanted to have the pictures in proper quality to print them and so on. I will of course tell them about this thread and that they may post in the forum, where they are planning to play and so on. Maybe we can help our girls at least a bit, might be a great deal for them.

I was also quite amazed about how Sanaa changed during the last two years after I met her in Halle, Germany, at a juniors two years ago. In 2003, she was looked very tiny, childish, not that much like a tennis player. Of course, she is still some sort of a "cutie" compared to Rushmi or Ankita, but her physical condition change in an impressive way. She also did not loose her power and fighting spirit when I saw her playing in that long Berry match. Really good to see them improving that much. If Ankita manages to play more steadily and to score more of this important "big points", she will definitely move up the rankings. She is really having some beautiful strokes but is sometimes doing silly mistakes in the wrong situation to make the match tougher for her than it needed to be.

Yours,
Florian

[amr090]

Florian, that'd be great if you could coordinate with Jay to make them aware of this forum and tell them to plan their trips in the US. Also even better would be if they just started posting in the forum much like Harsh did.

Once people start seeing how difficult a road they are traveling from their own words...theres no doubt it will inspire fans to help them out. I think that will help their situation tremendously if they get the word out by posting in here.


I think even the casual Indian tennis fan has no ideaa who they are...it's only a few hardcore fans like us who know who they are and where theyre playing.

[amr090]

Thanks (belatedly) for those wonderful reports, Florian, and especially the interviews with Ankita, etc., that were very moving.
I think Ankita and Sanaa are really worth supporting now. They are on the cusp of making it in women's tennis, but it will be impossible for them to do so unless they are able to get some sponsorship. Let's see what we can do. I will start contacting some Indian corporates and see where we can go with this.

pkb i think thats a brilliant idea because after Sania's success I'm sure there are sponsors out there looking to find other young Indian women talent. Right now Sania is starting to become extremely expensive as a namebrand. If we use the tactic that if you get a good player early for much cheaper then once she becomes successful you can use her to market products at a cheaper rate, they may be interested...


As far as I know the Bhambris are about the same age as Sania. Both are extremely athletic and fairly attractive, all they need is more success on the tour and publicity, and they can become an extremely profitable marketing tool. I hope some sponsors are made aware of their talents and they get the appropriate help.

[jaydeep]

Sanaa lost tamely, thats really surprising ...

(SF) Q (5) Julie Coin FRA bt (7) Sanaa Bhambri IND 60 62

Florian that would be great if Bhambris start to visit our forum and also post here ... So with help from forum members we can arrange something for them according their tournaments.

Jaydeep.

[sameerph]

Bhambri sisters won the doubles title winning the final 6-3, 6-3.

I suppose this week they are in the main draw of 25K challanger at Helsinki.