"Inside out"

People might wonder what all the fuss is about, considering that it wasn’t as if the girls had won the Fed Cup (the women’s equivalent of the Davis Cup) itself, or anything like that. They weren’t even remotely close. They just managed to lose out to Japan and missed playing China in the zonal playoff for the World Group qualifiers. Yet, for the few scattered supporters and followers of the female version of the game in the country, the case of so near, yet so far in Japan last week, was seen as an omen, a sign of things to come.

For too long, women’s tennis for us has been only about all that’s international. Be it a Martina-Chris Evert battle, Steffi Graf’s invincibility, Gabriela Sabatini’s looks, Monica Seles’ comeback or the more recent crop of bubble-gum chewing, doing-it-for-women-power teenage brigade. Forget being a poor country cousin, the Indian version of the game didn’t even figure anywhere.

The general perception of women’s tennis in India, when anyone bothered to think about it, was first that it was the preserve of the upper-crust "biddy." Later, this gave way to one of two things. Tennis was a good form of exercise for a girl, and a good social skill to add to her biodata when she came of marriageable age. Or alternatively, the women were regarded with condescending indulgence. "She’ll soon tire of the whole thing and get down to something serious."

That was till Nirupama Vaidyanathan, an Australian Open main draw entry and a first round win happened a couple of years ago (January 1998). Coimbatore-based Nirupama comes from a conservative background. Yet, she managed to get past barriers and social convention and go where no Indian woman had gone before (around 130 in the world at one stage).

Though there always have been a host of women tennis players in the country, now, some of them are getting both serious and serious attention. Manisha Malhotra, Sai Jayalakshmy, Rushmi Chakravarthi and youngsters Radhika Tuluple and Sonal Phadke are the more visible among a crop of dedicated women, out to "conquer the world". Success is a long way off, but they’re trying their best and that isn’t to be laughed at by anyone.

Coming back to Mahesh and Leander, given their propensity to, if not exactly kiss-and-make-up, then at least to get back together for the bucks and the glory, predicting anything will probably get you hoist by your own petard. It really is still too early to say anything about this being a final parting of ways for the duo and the end of the nation’s best chance at Olympic glory, but it is scary.

It is but natural in a country devoid of sporting icons other than sundry cricketers — who now seem to have feet of clay — to devote reams of space and specualation to the lives and loves (or hates, though that may be gramatically incorrect), and drama that Mahesh and Leander seem to thrive on. So the next couple of weeks may prove to be really interesting.