Deccan Gymkhana: Waiting to exhale!

And why not, considering that Pune’s Deccan Gymkhana is equipped with three synthetic courts and the city boasts of a rich tennis environment. Many of those associated with the game, especially the newcomers, might not be aware that the 96-year-old Deccan Gymkhana once occupied pride of place among the tennis centres of the country, boasting of six grass courts, apart from three cowdung and eight sand courts.

Having hosted as many as four Davis Cup tourneys in the late ’60s and early ’70s on grass — featuring Bungrat and Kunhkae of West Germany, Iftikar Ahmed of Pakistan (who before the separation had played for India), the yesteryears Indian heros: Premjit Lal, Jaideep Mukharjea, and the senior Krishnan — it had generated a lot of interest among the Puneites.

Countries like Pakistan (1968), Japan (1969), West Germany (1970) and Russia (1974) played on Pune soil, and there were exhibition matches as well. The one to be remembered the most was between Roy Emerson, the great Australian player whose record of 12 Grand Slams was equalled by Pete Sampras of US this year, and the senior Krishnan. The match went till five sets in which the victory finally went to Roy.

The city’s elite status as a Davis Cup centre in the old days was mainly the work of one man late Gangadhar Ranade. “He was the father of tennis. He fought lone battles, went through the hard times, but saw Deccan Gymkhana getting a Davis Cup nod. He was the driving force for us,” says Anand Tulpule, former secretary of Deccan Gymkhana.

The growing popularity of cricket, however, took its toll over tennis. The six grass courts were overtaken by the present cricket pitch. And so was the hold on any further Davis Cup tourneys.

However, the infrastructure chances since 1996 at the Deccan Gymkhana have once again seen things been put in progress. This was the year from when the three cowdung courts were converted to deco-turf with floodlights. Since then the city has once again seen a spur of tennis activities. To start with, there has been an increase in the number of State ranking tourneys — a good sign for the local junior players to get maximum exposure.

Good tournaments have started coming to Pune again, like the few ITF junior and Satellite events. Among this, of late, the city hosted an ITF Women’s Satellite meet, a first distaff international event of this stature after six years.

With the All India Tennis Association’s plans to conduct an increased number of ATP Challengers and Satellite tourneys, many tennis centres in the country have realised the need for good infrastructure. And the Deccan Gymkhana tennis committee are not among those who would take a back seat in this matter.

Stepping up the plans for upgrading, this premium tennis centre in the city will soon have two more synthetic courts, thus taking the total to five. Construction of these (without floodlights) is already in progress and is expected to cost about Rs. three lakhs. With this development, the centre will be left with six sand courts.

“The additional courts,” as the experts says, “will once again make Pune the hub of tennis in the state as well as in the country, as it was in the past.”

With five synthetic courts, the infrastructure to do so is definitely there. Can the return of the international circuit then be far behind?