Comment of the Week: Asian Tennis

From Tuesday Tirade: Where's the (Asian) Tennis?

rabbit said...

As an asian (Indian), I have to say I strongly disagree with injecting unqualified players into tournaments because of their race.

That being said, I have been very disappointed in the rise of Asian players in the ATP and WTA. I'll speak about India, because I don't know about other asian countries. When Sania started winning some matches circa 2005, the media was also gushing about the other upcoming stars: Rohan Boppana, Prakash (and Stephen) Amritraj and Shikha Uberoi. None of them has panned out or has even come close to making a significant run in the singles circuit. Sania is the lone player carrying the banner for India. I wish her the best, but her attitude of not caring about consistency is rather worrying.

Popular Indian support for tennis is also limited for some reason. Sania Mirza is on the face of many billboards and TV advertisements. But I feel her popularity has less to do with tennis than the fact that she is on international TV. There are many sports-knowledgeable fans in India, but most are concerned with cricket and, to a lesser extent, football (or soccer). What really shocked me recently was a report from a cousin of mine in Kolkata about the Sunfeast Open. Just so you know, Calcuttans are supposed to be rabid sports fans. There is no better way to start a conversation with a Bengali than to utter the word "Ronaldinho". Many of my relatives in Kolkata are big tennis fans. In any case, I thought that given the population in Kolkata and the general sports-knowledge level of people, the Sunfeast Open would be packed. According to my cousin, though, it was so empty that you could walk up to the first row! Hell, in Kolkata, even the grocery store is elbow-room only! Supposedly after Sania decided to bow out, the mostly Russian players who remained failed to attract the attention of many people.

I realize that tennis is an expensive sport and requires a lot of capital. But, there's a large number of people in India who can afford to set up sports centers to encourage tennis play and financially support aspiring players. With a billion people, surely we can churn out 3 good players :) Recently, there's been an initiative by the Indian tennis federation to create a grand slam winner by the year 2020. That looks a dream far from being realizable now...