From Artistry to Power: Tennis, Then and Now

By MAN MOHAN LAL MEHRA

The game of tennis, possibly more than any other game, has seen a sea change from its birth more than a century ago. Then it was a sport indulged in only by ladies and gentlemen of the aristocracy. The game was not even known outside of about half a dozen countries of the world. Today there is hardly any country where the game is not played seriously. In most parts of the world carrying a tennis racquet has become an in-thing.

I have been associated with the game for over half a century, first as a player and then as an administrator and critic. I have had the good fortune of having seen and played with some of the world’s best players of the forties and fifties in India as well as in America and Europe.

The tennis world was more or less dominated by America for most of the first half of the 20th century (except for a short period when the Frenchmen swept the field), producing such great players as Bill Tilden, Donald Budge and Jack Kramer. Then a long period saw the dominance of Australia under the incomparable leadership of Harry Hopman that saw the emergence of players such as Frank Sedgman, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver. Europe which had not produced a great player since Fred Perry of Britain must owe it to Bjorn Borg, the formidable Swede, who won the Wimbledon Championship five times in a row (1976-80), that saw the beginning of players from the continent. Now there are a large number of young players in Europe--from Croatia to Germany, and Spain to Russia--challenging the best in the world.

The sixth and particularly the seventh decade saw the emergence of power tennis. Although there were a number of powerful players in the past, the real power tennis started in that period and came to be known as the ‘serve and volley’ era. The advancement of science and technology also helped in the invention of tennis equipment, particularly tennis racquets whose construction migrated from the conventional wood to graphite and other improved synthetic material to suit the power game. Earlier it could not be imagined that a serve could be hit at a speed of 120-130 miles per hour. Thus a player without power service hardly stood a chance. The seventies was also the period when the amateur/professional distinction was eliminated. While in the past only amateur players could take part in major tournaments, now all tournaments areand all participants are known as players. Prize money was introduced in place of cups and trophies. Tennis thus became a profession and suddenly there was a spurt in the number of tournaments all over the world and prize money kept multiplying fast. A large number of tennis players, naturally, benefited from this and one can find great enthusiasm amongst youngsters to play the game seriously from a very early age.

Due to lack of professional competition within the country, India could not produce many international class players although in 1939, an Indian, Ghous Mohamed reached the quarter finals of Wimbledon, which was then considered to be the unofficial ‘World Championship’ and still continues to be the ‘Mecca’ of world tennis. It is the ambition of every great player to win a Wimbledon title more than any other title of the world.

The golden moment of Indian tennis came in the late fifties and sixties with the entry of the touch artist Ramanathan Krishnan, who not only achieved the distinction of being the only Indian, nay Asian, to reach the semi finals of Wimbledon against formidable opposition but also registered victories over all great players of that period. He was also ranked high among the ten best players of the world at that time.

Krishnan was followed by his son Ramesh (Krishnan) and Vijay Amritraj, both of whom did India proud in the international tennis. The present Indian star, Leander Paes, has the rare distinction of winning for India its only medal (even if a Bronze) in the last Olympics in Atlanta (Georgia) in the US.

A question is often asked, who was the greatest player of all times. There can be no accurate answer because the players of different periods had different styles, different opposition, different rules and regulations and above all different equipment at their disposal. However, some names do come to mind who would be classified amongst the greatest players of all times. These are Bill Tilden, Donald Budge and Pete Sampras of the United States; Rod Laver, Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall of Australia; Henry Cochet and Jean Borotra of France; Fred Perry of Britain; Bjorn Borg of Sweden and Boris Becker of Germany.

It is indeed surprising and regretful that in a country of over 900 million people we are starved of world class tennis players in India. Even smaller countries like Sweden, Germany and Spain can boast of a number of players among the top 20 in world ranking. There are several factors that ail Indian tennis. The most important is the lack of serious interest and proper administrative application. Our coaching program is inadequate and without proper direction. We have not been able to provide trained coaches to meet international standards. Even the existing centers are mostly run on commercial basis rather than with necessary seriousness to produce better players capable of reaching the first 10 or 20.

Tennis is an expensive sport and naturally, beyond the means of average people to afford coaching for their children. The first priority becomes school and college education to make them earn their livelihood. However, in countries such as Sweden, tennis associations, with the help of the state, built public tennis courts where young boys and girls can practice under professional guidance. The more promising are then chosen for extensive and intensive coaching and the cream therefrom is taken around different countries to participate in junior tournaments, all at state expense. Similarly, Israel has a serious tennis program for youngsters who find no shortage of facilities beginning at school level.

What we need in India is to build about 20 or so coaching centers in selected parts of the country with a good number of tennis courts. We should employ good knowledgeable and experienced tennis coaches and make available affordable equipment together with required physical training. If proper training is available I see no reason why we cannot produce more world class tennis players with the available talent. Our associations will have to be more active and profession-oriented. We cannot produce good players when people adorning high offices are without basic knowledge of the game. We must induce participation of industrialists, other rich organizations and individuals to take interest in funding the coaching programs and also come forward to sponsor promising youngsters. We are far away from the period when most players, particularly in India, reached quite a high standard, without or with little coaching. In today’s highly competitive and scientific age that is not possible.

While I have seen some great tennis matches, amongst those that are more memorable was a match in 1947 at Wimbledon between two of the world’s top players, Budge Patty of America and Jaroslav Drobny of Czechoslovakia, both of whom ended up as Wimbledon Champions in subsequent years (Patty in 1950 and Drobny in 1954). The match lasted two days and went full five sets. As there were no tie-break rules those days, the number of games played was nearly 100. All sets were long and, if I remember correctly one set went to over 40 games. The match was won by Patty. At the end both players collapsed in each others arms.

This reminds me of two of my most memorable matches which, incidentally, were against these two players. A couple of rounds before Patty’s match with Drobny, I played the former and was able to take him to full five sets. And a few months earlier, at the Indian nationals I was able to get the better of Drobny in another five setter. Drobny was then ranked world’s number 5 and I was India’s number 2. This became more memorable because our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru personally congratulated me on this victory.

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