Keep Climbing up the Ladder

This may be a good time to take stock, think about just where you are right now, where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there. Because it’s not as easy as you think — or as we think. Here, from a complete layman, are five suggestions on what you could do

1. HEAD STATESIDE
Avoid playing in India, staying in India, as much as possible. This is nothing unpatriotic, it’s basic commonsense. There’s one reason why all budding tennis players head to the US: It has the most demanding, unforgiving, democratic system. Which means that one WTA win doesn’t make you a star; it doesn’t throw up enough celebrity to suffocate whatever ambition you have inside. Best of all, there are people there who will say NO.

2. WATCH WHAT YOU EAT
Forget my insensitivity but have you looked in the mirror and seen yourself lately? Look past the grit and the guts and you’ll see a typically overweight teenager. Except, of course, you aren’t a typical teenager. So lay off the biryani and kebabs, hit the good carbs and junk the bad. And remember that there is more to healthy veg food than bagharey baingan. Learn to sacrifice; for instructions, ask Leander Paes

3. RESPECT YOUR BODY
Ever wondered how that ankle of yours will get cured when it has to support your frame all over the tennis court? Take care of yourself, look at a career beyond the next three years (again, talk to Leander). Exercise, diet, and most important of all: Never play on an injury. Don’t do what you did in Hyderabad. It is not professional

4. PICK AND CHOOSE
You are the flavour of the month/season, and clearly a crowd-puller, especially where there are white-collar, successful Indians. Which today is most anywhere in the world. So you will get wild-card entries to tournaments from the Bay Area to Bangkok, simply because you bring in the bucks. Resist the temptation, as much for professional pride as for the sake of that ankle. Five years later you’ll be grateful you did

5. GET AWAY FROM MUM AND DAD
This may sound harsh but you won’t get anywhere with a chaperone. Have confidence in yourself, in your own abilities, in the system you play in. Like with cricketers on tour, families are a distraction beyond a point. They get in the way — completely unintentionally, of course — of your bonding with your tourmates. Instead, travel with a physio and trainer — and dietician

Yours in sports
Jayaditya Gupta