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The 2015 tennis year might not have been as scintillating as 2014, but it was definitely quite an eventful one.
It was a year dominated by Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams in the men’s and women’s singles respectively. Both of their dreams of achieveing a calendar slam were put paid to courtesy magical performances by Stan Wawrinka and Roberta Vinci respectively.
Andy Murray created history as he was at the helm of Great Britain’s first Davis Cup victory in nearly eight decades.
Roger Federer is still looking dangerous and winning titles at the age of 34, with longtime rival Rafael Nadal looking to get back to his winning ways.
The 2015 season for Indian tennis was quite spectacular with a total of 18 titles including 5 Grand Slams. It was a decent year in singles as well this time around, with Yuki Bhambri doing exceptionally well and a few youngsters trying to make their way to the top.
Lets take a look at the highs and lows of Indian tennis in 2015
Highs
India’s Best Ally : Martina Hingis
While a 34 year old Swiss man by the name of Roger Federer still continues to win titles, his exact female equivalent Martina Hingis has made a spectacular return to tennis. Partering up with Sania Mirza and Laendar Paes in women’s doubles and mixed doubles respectively, both the duo’s have won a total of 5 grand slams.
Paes and Hingis, with a combined age of 76, created history by becoming the first mixed doubles team to win 3 grand slam events in a calendar year.
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis completely dominated the WTA doubles tour, winning a total of 10 titles, including Wimbledon, U.S Open and the year end championship.
Mirza also became the first Indian woman to become the World no. 1 in doubles. With the number of titles she has won this year, it does not look like she will relinquish that title soon.
For someone who has been in as many controversies as she has, one cannot help but salute her fighting spirit and immense perseverance.
Lets hope that Martina Hingis’s partnership continues with India.
Achieving greater strides : Rohan Bopanna
Rohan Bopanna’s year on court has been tremendous as he himself hails it as his mostt succesful year. He reached a career high ranking of no. 9 in doubles in the world.
His partnership with Florian Mergea clicked right from the beginning as the duo achieved 2 doubles titles and also defied the odds to reach the finals of the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London where they lost to the 2nd seeded pair of Rojer – Tecau.
He also won 2 titles with Daniel Nestor before partnering up with Mergea. His ground strokes have improved over the years and that, combined with his powerful serve and intricate net play has made him a real force to reckon with.
A new career high : Yuki Bhambri
Yuki Bhambri has had a phenomenal year on court. From being ranked no. 411 in the world in February to a career high 89 in November, he has come a long, long way indeed.
Bhambri has been quite injury prone over the years, but this year, apart from improving all aspects of his play, he also ensured he stayed injury free for almost the whole year. He had a small niggle towards the end of the season when he was forced to pull out of the Hua Hin challenger in the first round.
His season ended a month early because of it, but India’s no. 1 singles player earned a well-deserved rest.
By finishing the year ranked 93, he will not have to go through the tedious qualifying stage of the Australian Open. Hopefully he will not have to face the power of Andy Murray in the first round.
He deserves some extra credit for the fact that he has reached this career high ranking without a coach, citing a financial crunch as the reason for this.
It is quite disappointing and unfortunate that Indian singles tennis players do not receive proper financial backing.
“To climb in the ATP rankings I need a full fledged team of dedicated professionals. First of all, a travelling coach and a trainer, and then maybe later a hitting partner, physio etc – all the people that the top guys are already travelling with for so many years,” he claims.
He will look to perform well in the Australian Open next year and from there on take part in ATP 250 and 500 events instead of Challenger events.
A promising youngster : Sumit Nagal
18-year-old Sumit Nagal from Haryana has shown a lot of promise in 2015, winning 3 ITF singles titles and 1 ITF doubles title.
His biggest achievement this year, though, was a Grand Slam! The teen won the Wimbledon Juniors doubles title with his partner Lý Hoàng Nam, and will be looking to make a transition from ITF to Challenger tournaments next year.
He has showed all the right signs towards being the next big thing in men’s singles tennis.
But it hasn’t been all rosy for Indian tennis..
Lows
Another disappointing year for Somdev, Ramanathan
Despite having won 2 Challenger titles, even defeating top-ranked Indian singles player Yuki Bhambri in one of those finals, former Indian No. 1 Somdev Devvarman has had a disappointing year.
He dropped to a new low in the world rankings as he ended the year ranked 178. Of the 19 challenger tournaments he played this year, he was knocked out in the first round at 10 of those tournaments.
He has himself recognised this drop, and by hiring a new coach, cutting down on junk food and putting more hours on honing his serve, he will be looking to get back to his top game and breaking back into the top 100 next year.
“I am working hard with my coach. We are doing everything we can. He has known me for many many years. The work we are doing will take a little but of time. But we both are optimistic and both believe in my game. It’s important to be patient and don’t expect miracles overnight.” he said of his training.
Ramkumar Ramanathan, who looked promising in 2014, was not the same this year as he had a string of poor results at the Challenger level.
Saketh Myneni, however, has had a reasonable amount of success at the doubles level in a couple of Challenger tournaments.
Indian singles players need financial backing
One of the main reasons why India has not produced a world class singles player is because of the lack of financial backing from the Indian governement and companies.
Tennis has always been a sport where one needs to invest a large amount of money into to be succesful. There are private firms which promote athletes across various disciplines with the intention of helping players achieve international success.
Despite these companies existing, they are not ready to financially invest into singles tennis players in India citing that they are not capable of achieving an Olympic medal.
“I have tried but they always declined saying they do not help tennis players. I have no clue in India who does support or is willing to support tennis players besides the Tennis Association or the oil companies. ONGC has helped but I need much more to get to the next level,” Bhambri has said.
This is also a possible reason for many children not taking up tennis depsite being interested and emotionally invested in the sport. There is a need for these companies to invest in such players so as to improve the level of singles in India.
Only if this changes, and quickly, will India be able to see a competent singles player at the top.
