Indian tennis heads to a bright tomorrow, with Head Graphene 360 Speed racquets

With its leading brand ambassador Novak Djokovic winning Wimbledon, a welcome return after the 31-year-old Serb with 13 Grand Slam titles now, had spent a lot of time nursing an injured shoulder, Head is all set for launching its explosive new line of Graphene 360 Speed racquets.

With ‘’incredible stability’’ and ‘’enhanced energy’’ with a new frame ‘’engineered for speed’’, and a new string bed that provides ‘’increased power and full control at high speeds’’, the Head players are bound to turn more heads as they move towards the US Open.

Of course, Head will miss Andy Murray, who tried to make a return recently since playing his last tournament in Wimbledon last year. But, with the prodigy, the 21-year-old Alexander Zverev of Germany, the world No.3 being touted to win a Grand Slam soon, Head has a new face that has already fulfilled a lot of promise.

After the quarterfinals at the French Open, it was perhaps a big disappointment for Maria Sharapova to lose first round in Wimbledon to qualifier Vitalia Diatchenko of Belarus, but the Russian beauty continues to light up her environment even when she is not wielding a Head racquet.

Some of us do remember that Ankita Raina, the best Indian woman singles player, had given a tough account of herself in a three-setter against Diatchenko in the second qualifying round in Wimbledon. 

A bunch of girls are following on the foot prints of Ankita, in trying to march forward. Karman Kaur Thandi, who briefly snatched the No.1 status from Ankita last year, has been making meaningful strides, by winning her maiden title in the $25,000 event in Hong Kong. The 20-year-old Delhi girl sports the Head racquet with some style and purpose.

Zeel Desai who has successfully emerged out of the junior ranks, and the young National champion Mahak Jain use the Head to plough their way forward in the professional circuit.

Prarthana Thombare who had won the Asian Games bronze medal with Sania Mirza and had partnered the former world No.1 in the Rio Olympics, looks all set to have a memorable time in the Asian Games in Jakarta.

Sai Samhitha with her classic singled handed backhand, the former Asian junior champion Snehadevi Reddy, apart from the promising bunch of Humera Shaikh, Vaidehi Chaudhari, Tanisha Kashyap, Sanjana Sirimalla and Prinkle Singh are all capable of adding more visibility to Head.

The Indian fans may remember Wimbledon this time for the brilliant performance of Divij Sharan who made his maiden doubles quarterfinals with Artem Sitak of New Zealand, and the super show by qualifiers Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan, who played their maiden Grand Slam after having set Wimbledon as their target last year!

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Purav Raja are the other doubles stars who are making everyone take note of their presence in the circuit.

Aryan Goveas has made rapid strides forward to be seeded No.2 in the tournament he is playing at the moment in China. Dhruv Sunish, National junior champion Sacchitt Sharma, Abhimanyu Vannem Reddy, Calvin Golmei, Dev Javia, Sushant Dabas, Ajay Malik and Udit Gogoi have the ability to step it up in the next few months, provided they channelise their Head!

For an amateur player like me who likes to keep fit and appreciate the nuances of the game better by playing on the clay courts of the National Stadium in Delhi, it is a privilege to swing the Graphene 360 Speed MP racquet, to add some substance to the enjoyable game.

It may be cool to sport the latest Head, but it is great to sweat, to keep your head cool.

It is always a good time to head to the tennis courts !

Ankita Raina would love to thank Somdev Devvarman from the bottom of her heart!

Whenever she writes a book, looking at her career, Ankita Raina will profusely thank Somdev Devvarman, for providing the impetus at a crucial juncture !

More than all her supporters, Somdev has done a good turn to Ankita, first by excluding her from the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) list and then by justifying his wisdom.

For sure, it is heart breaking at the moment for the girl, easily the best Indian woman tennis player, to be excluded from an elite list, not just because she loses Rs.50,000 pocket money every month.

To say that she is not good enough to compete in the next Olympics in Tokyo is too harsh a statement. Well, did Sunitha Rao, Rushmi Chakravarthi and Prarthana Thombare, believe that they would compete in the Beijing, London and Rio Olympics?! They did, thanks to the ability of Sania Mirza to lift Indian women’s tennis to a different sphere.

For sure, Ankita Raina has been unlucky to miss the Rio Olympics, as she did not fit into the scheme of things. So be it. But, that has only helped her focus on her game and fitness with all the intensity and earnestness that she could gather.

Now, Somdev has jumped into the fray to whip the best game out of her, like they churn out butter from curd !

It is better for Ankita, but it is harsh on her.

No Indian woman tennis player has played the quality of tennis that Ankita played during the recent FedCup in Delhi, after having hinted at a jump in quality and fitness with a fabulous performance in the quarterfinals of the $125,000 WTA event in Mumbai.

To top it all, Ankita played a 4-6, 4-6 match against the former world No.4 Samantha Stosur of Australia in Dubai. With a bit of luck and perseverance, she will be winning such matches and jumping up the rankings ladder.

Now, let us not question Somdev as to how much women’s tennis he has ever watched, or whether he has watched Ankita Raina play a match.

Well, to take the argument further, did Somdev ever dream about competing in the London Olympics?!

Lest anyone jump to a wrong conclusion, we make it very clear that nobody is questioning his achievements. He did win NCAA singles title twice in the highly competitive American collegiate circuit, beating no less than a player than the towering John Isner. He did win the Commonwealth Games gold apart from the singles and doubles gold in the Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010. He has played some impressive matches in the Davis Cup against top quality players.

Somdev had reached a career-best rank of No.62 in 2011, the best by an Indian after Ramesh Krishnan. Better than No.73 that Leander Paes reached in 1998, after having won the singles bronze medal in Atlanta in 1996.

If the same yard stick had been used, Leander had no business winning that Olympic medal, when he was not even ranked in the top-100 of the world. In fact, he had only played in three first round matches in the Grand Slams.

Coming back to the point, from November 2011, Somdev did not play a single match on the professional circuit, owing to injury, before he competed in the London Olympics on a wild card on the grass courts of Wimbledon, and won four games against Jarko Nieminen of Finland. 

The AITA managed to get a wild card for a wounded horse, when some of us thought that the young Yuki Bhambri who had won the Australian Open juniors, was world No.1 junior,  and had finished runner-up in the Youth Olympics could gain from the experience of playing the Olympics.

Stretching the argument further, we also see that Vishnu Vardhan not only played the doubles with Leander Paes, so superbly at that, but also played the singles as an alternate in the London Olympics. Did anyone say before hand that Vishnu was Olympics material.

The point is, we cannot dismiss the chance of a player to compete in the Olympics, especially someone like Ankita Raina who has been No.1 in the country for many years. If the others are not able to overtake her, how do they convince anyone that they would play better than Ankita on the big stage.

It is a tough game, and it is unfair to look at the age of a player_and Ankita is only 25_or a perceived stagnation of rank, to keep a player out, especially when the whole country is jumping into the bandwagon and reaping the rewards in terms of support.

In a strange situation, it is a player against a player, while the permanent villain in all sports discussion, like the National federation, has recommended Ankita’s name to the Union government to correct the anomaly.

Rather than finding fault with Somdev’s assessment, the authorities should have a woman athlete as the government observer for women in each game. It will be the right thing to do, at a time when the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is aiming at gender equality.

Someone like Nirupama Sanjeev, a pioneer in women’s tennis before Sania Mirza broke into stage with such flair and firepower, must be bleeding in her heart to see the gross injustice being meted out to Ankita.

Being brave, Ankita would attempt to make the best of a bad bargain, and continue to strive hard to get better, with a lot more determination.

But, any system that keeps the best out, beats itself.

Ankita’s non-inclusion in the TOPS is blatant injustice to one of the best athletes we have seen.