Exactly a week after he had picked up a bronze medal in the mens team event in the ongoing Asian Games,Sanam K Singhs residence in Sector 8,Chandigarh,was the centre of activity once again. Giving India its sixth gold medal,local lad Sanam partnered with Indias Number One tennis player Somdev Devvarman and the sixth seed Indian pair shocked second seed Chinese Gong Maoxin and Li Zhe 6-3 6-7(4) 10-8 in the final to win the coveted gold. Since then his mother Roopa Singhs phone has not stopped ringing,as congratulatory notes kept pouring in and the list of guests at her residence has been growing. Sitting in the guest room adorned with trophies and medals won by Sanam,Roopa cant stop raving about the Sanam-Devvarmans doubles match. It was fantastic,wasnt it? I was glued to the television set and watched the whole match. I had this gut feeling from the beginning that Sanam and Somdev were going to win and they did, said Roopa,her excitement clearly reflecting in her voice. Though the 22-year-old Sanam had won some big titles in the past like the Asian Closed Junior Championship and Asia/ Oceana Closed Championship singles title in 2005,and also reached the round of 16 at the Junior Australian Open and Junior Wimbledon,Roopa knows that the Asian Games gold is his biggest achievement yet. It is the biggest win of his life. He sounded very excited when I called him after winning the gold. In fact,I spoke to Somdev first and he asked me Aunty,aapne hamara match dekha hain? (Did you watch our match?). Sanam said that the victory was yet to sink in. I am proud of both of them, Roopa,offering sweets to the guests,shared. The mangnitude of her excitement grew with each question of Sanams arrival back home in Chandigarh. Roopa shared that it has been more than two years when Sanam last came to the city. I rarely get to see him. In fact,it was during the Chennai Open earlier this year when I saw him for the last time. He came to Chandigarh two years ago and now he will be here in December. He will go back to the us from China and then come to India. I cant wait to see him back, Roopa said. It was in 2007 that Sanam left India to join the University of Virginia,USA,with a 100 per cent scholarship for four-years. Before that he trained at the National Tennis Academy (NTA) for four years. In between,Sanam had to battle some personal tribulations as his father Kanwai Krishan passed away only three months after he had moved to America. Before that,a wrist injury - a ganglion ligament strain - kept him out of action for some time. Those were hard times for him and also for me as he needed to concentrate on his tennis. It is hard being away from him but we speak every day over the phone, said Roopa. Sanam,who trained at the CLTA courts in his formative years,was a tennis prodigy and was expected to go places with his tennis skills. However,it did not happen and Sanam was lost into oblivion. However,he fought all odds and injuries and once again rapidly rose in the tennis world. The player who was once ranked as high as No 4 in the ITF junior rankings was drafted into the Indian Davis team in 2009 after he was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2009 US Collegiate Tennis Associations (ITA) national team indoor championships. He reached the Chennai Open semi-finals with Somdev Devvarman as partner earlier this year. Sanam took to tennis when he was eight. He did his schooling from St Johns School,Sector 26,Chandigarh before moving to NTA.
