Tennis at the Commonwealth Games
Tennis made its debut at the Commonwealth Games last month, which took place in Delhi from 3-14 October.
The Games — which take place between the 54 Commonwealth nations, all but two of which are former British colonies — features ten core sports, plus an additional seven optional sports of which tennis can be one.
Given the wave popularity the sport is enjoying amongst Indian people, There could not have been a more appropriate place in which to welcome the sport to the Commonwealth-wide competition.
The southern city of Chennai, also hosted India’s Davis Cup World Group playoff tie from 17-18 September, which the team won to find themselves back in the World Group of the competition and at the top level of men’s tennis.
So, with tennis enjoying such prominence in the Indian calendar, could the Asian country be about to follow in the footsteps of Eastern Europe and China and become the next big tennis nation?
Inspired by Vijay Amritraj — the first Indian to play on the tennis circuit in the 1970′s — along with India’s host of current international tennis stars, tennis academies are popping up all over the country with young and old wanting to pick up a racket and try to replicate the feats of their professional Indian counterparts.
The likes of Rohan Bopanna, who made headlines when he reached the final of the men’s doubles at September’s U.S. Open with his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi — as well as the final of the mixed — is setting the example for the next generation of Indian tennis players.
Fellow doubles specialists Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, who won 25 doubles titles whilst playing together and many since finsing new partners, have also raised the profile of the sport in the once exclusively cricket-mad nation.
And former world number 27 Sania Mirza — who was front page news in India when she married Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik earlier in the year — is flying the Indian flag for the singles players, along with rising men’s top-100 star Somdev Devvarman.
All were part of the Indian tennis team in Delhi vying to win the five gold medals up for grabs in the sport. Deverman was successful in winning gold in men’s singles, while Mirza managed silver in the women’s event.
India were always confident about the chances of topping the podium in Delhi and so it proved right. But how much is this about the standard of the competition in the Commonwealth, rather than the nation’s superiority in the tennis world?
In the current men’s top 100 singles — aside from India’s Devvarman — only Scot Andy Murray, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, Cyprus’ Marcos Baghdatis and South Africa’s Kevin Anderson were eligible to play in the Games, but none of the quartet will be making the trip to South East Asia.
Winning gold in Delhi was therefore the equivalent to a title on the challenger circuit – a tier below the main tennis tour. So it is hardly surprising the likes of Murray and Hewitt chose to defend their ranking points at the October’s China Open and Shanghai Masters events instead of competing for their country.
Hewitt, although passionate about representing Australia in Davis Cup, has spoken out about tennis’ place in the Commonwealth Games, describing it as “a little strange”.
“I didn’t even know tennis was in the Commonwealth Games,” he said in Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald. “With the tour we have, you can’t cram too many more tournaments or events in our schedule. Especially for top players.”
Mukerjea has acknowledged the abscence of the Commonwealth’s best, but doesn’t want it to take away from the success he hopes India will have in the competition.
“The pullouts have taken the sheen away from what is tennis’ debut at the Commonwealth Games,” he said.
“It would’ve been great to see Andy Murray and Lleyton Hewitt play, but at the same time there will be some good players and we will still see good tennis.”
However, Bhupathi belives tennis’ inclusion in India’s Commonwealth Games — one of the biggest sporting events the country has ever hosted — will propel the sport even further into the spotlight in his homeland.
“It has become big for us because it is being played in our backyard for the first time,” he said.
And regardless of the standard of the competition Bhupathi has a point. After all success is said to breed success and with many Indians having seen tennis played in their country for the first time and more importantly seeing their stars win — many more could be inspired to pick up a racket.
In a few years time we could be seeing a whole wave of Indians tennis stars dominating the world game.
