Cup of Good Hope

With their victories in the Davis Cup tie against China, Prakash Amritraj and Harsh Mankad lived up to the expectations of team captain Leander Paes. M.S. Unnikrishnan profiles the young guns of Indian men’s tennis

Son rise

Prakash Michael Amritraj has been wielding a tennis racket for as long as he can remember. He had been part of his father Vijay Amritraj’s ‘baggage’ on his globe-trotting tennis tours. Prakash learnt the rudiments of the game on the tour and as expected, took up the family sport.

The Amritrajs are the first tennis family of India as Vijay, Anand and Ashok have all played Davis Cup for the country.

Vijay was a regular in the Indian Davis Cup team for 20 years, forming an enduring doubles partnership with his brother Anand. But Prakash says he took up tennis as a career of his own volition.

"Dad never pushed me into tennis", he says softly. "The decision to pursue tennis as a career was my own. I have a passion for the game", he adds. Now that Prakash is a full-time tennis player, Vijay is his coach and counsellor.

The two hit it off well. But Vijay’s advice to his son is that there is no short cut to success. He has to bear tremendous load of hard work to break into the big league, and stay there.

Prakash seems to have come out of his tentative phase after scoring two stunning singles victories against Wang Yu and Sun Peng of China in the Asia-Oceania Group I Davis Cup tie in New Delhi last week. China may not be a great tennis power, but they were no push-overs either. The Davis Cup wins have injected a tremendous dose of confidence into Prakash’s psyche, as they came after four defeats.

Though he made his Davis Cup debut against the Netherlands in 2003, and then played against New Zealand and Japan, a victory had eluded him.

The ‘home’ debut against China in New Delhi was the kind of break Prakash was looking for, and it was just as well that he tasted success under Leander Paes’ captaincy.

Leander honed his tennis skills at the now defunct Britannia-Amritraj Tennis Academy in Chennai under Vijay and his mother Maggie Amritraj’s tutelage. And with Prakash coming good in the Davis Cup, Leander has virtually cleared the debt he owes to the Amritraj family.

Born on October 2, 1983, in Tarzana (California) as the elder son of Vijay and Shyamala Amritraj, Prakash is very much his father’s son — pleasant, polite, with a beaming demeanour, and almost copybook aggressive, yet sophisticated, serve-and-volley tennis.

The six-feet-tall Prakash came into the limelight when he emerged as the No. 1 junior in the United States. He was named the most valuable player (MVP) in the NCAA Tournament, and was also ranked No. 3 in singles. He played two seasons of university tennis and led his prep team to the CIF Los Angeles City Section Championship in 1998 and 1999, was ranked No. 8 in the United States Tennis Association boys singles national rankings.

He has won several titles in the 18 and under-18 sections in Philippines, Canada, Singapore and Indonesia. In 2002, he captured the USTA Boys’s 18s Super National Hard Court Championship and finished his first collegiate season ranked 71 with a 23-15 overall singles record. His biggest win so far has been against Australian Open champion Marat Safin in the 2002 Mercedes-Benz Championship.

Prakash is also very serious about his doubles and partners his cousin Stephen ‘Duke’ (son of Anand Amritraj) on the tour.

Though Vijay is obviously his role model, he is a great fan of boxing legend Mohammad Ali and tennis icon Boris Becker.

Though born in the US, Prakash holds American and Indian passports. There were doubting Thomases when he was drafted to do Davis Cup duty for India as they felt that he was having the cake and eating it too.

But the wins against China have effectively silenced his critics.

Court call

Harsh Mankad, the grandson of legendary
all-rounder Vinoo Mankad, is surprisingly not a cricketer. He wanted to become one, but was made to take up tennis by his father, former batsman Ashok Mankad. Ashok did not want his son to meet the same fate he faced in a team game like cricket, where his slot was always in doubt.

Ashok Mankad was a cricketer of promise who played a few Test matches for India and led Bombay, but could not realise his full potential.

The politics of cricket kept Mankad out of the Test ambit after a while. But tennis also runs in the Mankad family as Harsh’s mother Nirupama was a former Asian and national champion, and Arjuna Award winner.

Harsh started playing tennis when he was seven. He won the junior national hard court titles in all age groups (under-14, under-16 and under-19), as well as the US National Championship while doing his graduation in America.

Harsh, however, left college midway to concentrate on tennis in 2002. He has won several ITF Futures and ATP Challenger titles, and his recent doubles victory in the UK Satellite Championship and his entry into the main round of the Chennai Open boosted his confidence to do well in the Davis Cup tie against China.

His two singles victories against China have helped Harsh display his range on grass, a surface on which he had always struggled.

Harsh, like Prakash, is also a Libran (born on October 11, 1979) and has a natural flair for tennis, though his forte are hard courts. But in New Delhi last week, he showed that grass was not alien to him either, and he could excel on it too.

Harsh defeated Wang Yu and Hao Lu in the singles to create a huge impact. He did face some hiccups in the second match, but held his nerve to emerge the winner.

Leander Paes stepped aside to make way for Harsh to play in the singles. And he did not let down his captain.

Harsh thanks his US-based coach Happy Bhalla for the turnaround in his game. He also gratefully acknowledges the support of Rosy Blue, the second largest diamond company in the world, and Dr Hedge, who owns the Huntington Medical Association in California.

Dr Hedge, a family friend, has loosened his purse strings to help Harsh pursue tennis on the Tour. Dr Hedge, who also practises sports medicine, has been supporting Harsh without expecting anything in return.

Harsh admits that his first love was cricket. "I wanted to become a cricketer as I could bat, bowl and field well", he reminisces. "Instead, I was pushed into tennis as at some point, my father didn’t want me to take to cricket because of his own (bad) experience", Harsh explained. But now that he has taken the plunge, Harsh is determined to reach a "certain level".

"Once I start playing consistently, I can really do well", says the young man confidently. His favourite surface is hard court, but his grass court game has also improved considerably. "I am becoming a more complete player now", he says.

Harsh feels that playing tennis in India has great advantages as one gets to play on all kinds of surfaces — grass, clay and hard court (cement and synthetic). "You develop a complete game in India", he adds.

Harsh, who made his Davis Cup debut against Lebanon four years ago, has now recorded six wins in 12 outings. He presently has an ATP ranking of 353. The right hander does not claim to have any special hobby as he’s fully focussed on tennis to make a distinctive mark.

Beyond cricket

From luxury cars to bicycle, jewellery to footwear, a cricketer is the obvious choice for any company to sell their product. But with Sania Mirza, Narain Karthikeyan and Rajyavardhan Rathore emerging as India’s new sports icons, corporates are prepared to rally behind them with their lucrative endorsement deals.

"Corporates have started to look beyond cricket. The endorsement offers reflect the popularity of individuals. And it is because of the hard work of Sania and Karthikeyan, who have managed to reach the top at the international level, that commercials are coming their way, says Anirban Das, vice-president, Globosport.

In case of sports which do not enjoy huge popularity, an individual has to make a break at the top level to attract attention," he says.

It is a good sign for Indian sports, the rise of non-cricketing stars as our new sports icon is helping the popularity of other sports as commercials and media hype generates interest among people, says Sunil Kalra, branch director, Percept India.

"Corporates are now willing to associate themselves with sports like tennis and formula car racing," he says.

Sania, after her success at the WTA Open in Hyderabad, attracted the sort of attention that is reserved only for cricketers and such popularity could not have gone unnoticed by corporates.

The impact of Sania’s magic was such that within weeks of her dream run on the court, Globosport, the Bangalore company had 18 companies lined up to sign the new sensation of Indian sports.

With tennis hogging the headlines on sports pages and television channels children with parents are heading for the nearest tennis court.

"There is an increase in the number of youngsters and parents coming up with queries for admission after Sania started her dream run in the Australian Open, say tennis lovers.

Golfer Jeev Milkha Singh, who will also promote handicrafts, says, "We cannot compare cricket with other sports. It is followed as a sort of religion here. But yes, everyone needs recognition for their hard work and it is good to see that tennis, hockey and golfers are getting their due.

"For ‘Real-life-real-heroes’, a project of the Ministry of Textiles, we were looking at unsung heroes who suit Indian handicrafts which despite being the best are lagging behind. So we choose non-cricketing sportspersons," says Kalra.

Also the prices the cricketers charge come into play when the companies think of signing any sportsperson for endorsements.

"The prices charged by Sourav and Sachin are beyond the reach of everyone. The market has become too cluttered. So the corporates are looking for star players in other fields," says Kalra. — PTI

Sheet anchor
Gopal Sharma

Asim Kamal steadied Pakistan in the first innings of the Mohali Test

Mohammad Asim Kamal is here to stay. Just seven-Test old, the left-handed batsman from Karachi is already being hailed as a big hope for Pakistan. During the first Test against India at Mohali, the 27-year-old gave an impressive performance which won him plaudits from one and all.

Batting like a veteran, Kamal steadied the shaky Pakistan ship with the help of tail-enders. Batting doggedly, he rescued his team from a precarious position of 156 for 5 to 312 all out. Though he was unlucky to miss out on a well-deserved century, he gave a good account of himself as a middle-order batsman of immense potential. Before he was undone by a beauty from an inspired Laxmipathy Balaji, Kamal was in full flow and displayed a rich repertoire of strokes.

The thundering cover drives he unleashed against the seamers stood out for virtually perfect execution. He played straight drives with ease, and was not afraid to go for the pull shots whenever the ball was there to be hit.

Luck again deserted Kamal while he was batting in the 90s. He was dismissed for 99 on his debut against South Africa in Lahore during the 2003-04 series. Not the one to be deterred by these dismissals, Kamal said after his heroic knock that such things were part of the game and he would reach the coveted three-figure soon.

In a fledgling career spanning seven Tests, Kamal has five half centuries to his credit. This was Kamal’s third half century in four outings against arch-rivals India. Earlier, he had notched up 73 (Lahore) and an unbeaten 60 (Rawalpindi) when India visited Pakistan last year.

According to former Pakistan batsman Rameez Raja, the obdurate Kamal is the type of batsman who has the ability to bind the innings together in the company of lower-order batsmen. That’s exactly what Kamal did the first innings of the Mohali Test.

Kamal, who is facing competition from Shoaib Malik and flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi for the No. 6 slot, is sure to have gained a lot of confidence after this knock, which should stand him in good stead.

IN THE NEWS
Out of the Woods
Vikramdeep Johal

Tiger Woods’ victory at the Doral Open in Florida last week couldn’t have come at a better time. He not only ended Vijay Singh’s 26-week reign at the top, but also became a strong contender for next month’s US Masters in Augusta.

Woods recorded a one-stroke victory over Phil Mickelson, who has been the most impressive golfer on the 2005 PGA Tour so far.

However, Woods would have to be at his best to win his first major since the 2002 US Open. Apart from Mickelson, he faces a tough challenge from Vijay Singh, winner of the Hawaii Open in January, and Ernie Els, who clinched the Dubai Desert Classic last week.

Ever since his knee surgery in December, 2002, the 29-year-old American has struggled to find peak form. But now he is beginning to show the magic touch that made him rule the roost.

There was no stopping Woods in 2000, when he emphatically won the US Open, the British Open and the US PGA Championship. From late 1999 to the middle of 2002, he claimed seven majors, holding the top spot for a record 264 weeks till he was dethroned by Vijay in September last year.

Armed with a remodelled swing, Woods has clawed his way back to the top. His famed ability to hold his nerve under pressure and come up with a brilliant shot almost at will seems to have returned. It’s time to again ask the million-dollar question: Who will tame the Tiger?

SPORTS MAIL

2010: A pointless odyssey

Do we really need the Rs 2,500 crore extravaganza, the 2010 Commonwealth Games? The main pretext being given for staging the event is that it would give a fillip to our medal quest. We hosted the Asian Games in 1982 and all that it has got us so far are one silver and two bronze medals in the Olympics.

Lalit Mohan
Gurgaon

Tarsem S. Bumrah
Batala

Nirmal Kumar
Panchkula