For Indian Tennis, 2016 turned out to be an agonizing tale of missed opportunities. While there were quite a few high points as well, they were largely overshadowed by disappointing events that unfolded throughout the course of the year.
Let us take a closer look at how the season turned out to be for our players , and what fans have to look forward to in the 2017 seasons!
The Doubles Stars
Sania Mirza continued to make the country proud, as she completed a mind boggling 80 weeks as World No.1. She's been at the top since April 2015, and although she was in danger of losing the top spot after bowing out in the semi-finals of the WTA Year-Ending Championships in Singapore, other results going her way meant that she managed to end the season as World No.1.
She also underwent a split with Martina Hingis, thus ending the much celebrated alliance, which was lovingly called "Santina" by fans. The split was not before the duo completed a hat-trick of Grand Slams when they won the Australian Open earlier this year, after winning Wimbledon & US Open last season.
Post the split, Sania joined forces with Barbora Strycova, & seemed to have immediately struck a rapport with her as well, winning two titles at the fag end of the season. Their performance will be closely monitored come the new season.
While Sania continued to bring laurels to the country, age finally seems to be catching up with the evergreen Leander and a much younger-but-still-old Rohan Bopanna. While Bopanna has managed to stay in the top 30 at the end of the season, Paes' ranking seems to be in free fall, as he had to resort to playing Challenger events, after having slipped out of the top 50.
At the Olympics, the duo had a forgettable outing in the Men's Doubles event, after a war-of-words before the event, even as the Mirza-Bopanna pairing missed out on a medal by a whisker in the Mixed Doubles, as they lost the Bronze Medal playoff match.
With the dwindling careers of Bopanna and Paes, the only bright spot this year in the men’s doubles was the new emerging pairing of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja, who have garnered impressive results on the ATP Challenger Tour this year, and hope to be a force to reckon with at the Tour events and Slams next year.
Also a special mention to Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan for breaking the top 100 barrier for the first time this year.
Yuki Bhambri and his struggle with injuries
After having achieved a career best ATP rank of 88 at the end of 2015, much was expected of Bhambri in the 2016 season, as he finally seemed to have started to do justice to his potential. But what was expected to be a minor elbow niggle, turned into a disastrous case of a frustrating case of tennis elbow, that would not let go of Yuki. The injury seemed to have got aggravated at the Australian Open, where Bhambri tried to make a hurried comeback.
As a result, he missed the next 8 months of the season, and his ranking plummeted to a lowly 533. Yuki did make a comeback a couple of months back, playing qualifying at Challenger events, but failed to win a main draw match.
He did make the semi-finals of a Futures event in the US, and is working hard in Thailand as a part of his off-season training, along with top Asian players such as Yen Hsun Lu and Hyeon Chung. One can expect big things from Yuki in 2017, provided that he can manage to stay healthy.
Saketh Myneni - the top ranked Indian on Tour
At 194, Saketh Myneni is currently the highest ranked Indian on the Emirates ATP rankings. The high point of Saketh's season was qualifying for the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. He achieved the feat at the US Open this year, where he not only qualified for the main draw, but was one point away from setting up a 2nd round date against Novak Djokovic.
Backed by his vociferous "Saki Squad", Myneni almost upset 49th ranked Jiri Vesely at the US Open this year. The Indian was 5-2 up in the deciding 5th set when cramps put paid to his otherwise great form, robbing him of a lifetime opportunity to play against the then world number one player.
On the back of his US Open performance, Saketh achieved his personal best rank of 137, only to be pegged back later by injuries. 2017 has the potential to be the breakthrough season for Myneni, however.
The up-and-coming youngsters
Among the many promising players to look out for in the future, the one name that stands out is that of 19-year old Sumit Nagal. After having become only the sixth Indian ever to win a Junior Grand Slam title last year, Sumit has been transitioning rather well to the senior circuit.
Nagal spent most of his season playing in the tough European clay court circuit, and managed to rack up impressive results that stand out for a player of his age.
He managed to win the first ITF $25K title of his career in Poland this season, and backed it up with another title a few weeks later in Hungary. In only his second season on Tour, the teenager has managed to rise rather quickly to a rank of 334 in the ATP Rankings.
He's only expected to go higher in the rankings in 2017.
But after Sumit, there's been no one in the top 100 of the ITF Junior Rankings on the boy's side, although youngsters like Adil Kalyanpur, Siddhant Banthia and Nitin Kumar Sinha are working hard to get there.
On the girls’ side, there has been a steady flow of top 100 players, with the emergence of Pranjala Yadlapalli, Karman Kaur Thandi, Mahak Jain and Mihika Yadav.
But again, the one name that stands out is that of Zeel Desai. The youngster managed to break Sania Mirza's long standing record of 10 ITF Junior Titles this year, after having cracked the top 40 barrier in the ITF Junior Rankings.
She has all but cemented her place in the main draw of the Junior Grand Slams for 2017, and big things are expected from her in the coming year.
The big name to watch out for - Vikash Singh
16-year old Vikash Singh was a game away from winning the Orange Bowl Under-16 Tennis Championships, the most prestigious tennis competition for players of his age group. Previous winners of this event include illustrious names such as Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg, Grigor Dimitrov, Ivan Lendl – and Andy Murray!
So even making the final of such a high profile event was a huge achievement for the youngster, who also reached the semi-finals of the Eddie Herr Under -16 event, another high profile competition for junior tennis players.
Vikash also enjoyed doubles success at both stops, reaching the Eddie Herr final and Orange Bowl semifinals with different partners.
The teenager comes from a very humble background. His father, a steward at Calcutta Punjab Club, did not even have enough money to even buy his son a racquet. Vikash's first racquet was gifted to him by his first coach, Mr. Dilip Chowdhury, who saw the hunger in Vikash.
Spotted at the ITF Asia 14&Under Development Championships in Ho Chi Minh City and the ITF World Junior Tennis Competition (14 & under) in Delhi, the teen received scholarships that helped him on his way.
Sponsorship help from former Davis Cup player Naresh Kumar meant that Vikash could extend his stay in the US, and he has been training at the renowned Smith Stearns Tennis Academy ever since.
