Mumbai: On a rainy Wednesday evening in Mumbai, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza shared the stage in a rare collective throwback to those brighter days of Indian tennis. When Indian players had a larger presence on the professional tour, deeper runs in Grand Slams as well as the Olympics and greater impact while on Davis Cup duty.
In their most recent Davis Cup tie, India were blanked by Sweden that reflected the current lack of depth in the sport in the country, especially in singles. For Paes, one of India’s greatest Davis Cuppers who holds the record of most appearances and match wins and for whom “playing the Davis Cup has been the greatest honour”, it calls for improvement and a collective push.
“Indian tennis and Davis Cup has a lot of improvement to go through,” Paes said after the player auction for the sixth season of the Tennis Premier League (TPL), scheduled in December.
“I think that all of us must come together as one, and help the sport grow. I personally feel it’s going to take another 10 years or so to develop another Grand Slam champion. Maybe I’m wrong; I hope I’m wrong. Maybe we get someone coming up and winning before that. But there’s a lot of work that’s to be done to develop a Grand Slam champion.”
That process of improvement must start right from the bottom, through developing a more structured base instead of relying on an odd freak of talent to sporadically come through, felt the 18-time Grand Slam doubles champion and 1996 Olympics bronze medallist in singles.
“(The improvement has to be) multiple fold, the way I look at it,” Paes said. “At the grassroot level, the reason we’re sitting where we are today is because over the last four decades, we’ve only had a string of players come through. I feel that the base has to be worked on. We need to recognise talent, nurture and test it and bring them into academies. And build a large base of youngsters.
“And also, get back to having many tournaments in India, so that the youngsters can get that experience. I have so much respect for these athletes who have persevered day in and day out, spending their hard-earned money just to be able to travel and play tournaments, because we don’t have many tournaments in India. They’re out there working so hard to earn a living, merely breaking even.”
Paes called for a collective push from all the stakeholders. That, at a time when friction between some top players and the association has come to the fore again.
“It’s going to take a cumulative effort of the players, the administration, the corporates, and the entire tennis fraternity in India, to come together and push for that growth,” he said.
Paes was impressed by the current level of the 44-year-old Rohan Bopanna, who won the 2024 Australian Open doubles title with Matt Ebden and was roped in by the Paes-backed Shrachi Delhi Rarh Tigers for this TPL season. “Rohan’s performance has been wonderful, to see another (Grand Slam) champion come through,” Paes said.
