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Journalism of Courage
Bangalore, June 1: Maharashtra, with an embarrassment of riches, start as firm favourites in the men’s section in the fourth National Games tennis championship, scheduled to get under way at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) Stadium on Monday.
The State, which boasts of some of the best reserve players in the country, (accepted that Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are the frontline players), has, in Nitin and Sandeep Kirtane, Gaurav Natekar, Asif Ismail, Vinod Ramachandran and Narendranath, a wealth of talent. The absence of Harsh Mankad, reportedly down with a bout of chicken pox, has not affected the team’s strength. The only team that might have provided some sort of competition would have been Andhra Pradesh. In Vasudev Reddy, the team has a dangerous player. But with Susheel Narla not expected to take part as he is reportedly not in the country, Andhra’s chances have been considerably reduced.
Two other states that might be worthy opponents are Tamil Nadu who have a couple of veteran players in KG Ramesh and Manoj Kumar, besides KV Ganesh and hosts Karnataka, as P Srinath, Peter Vijaykumar, Anand Sukumar, Shivshankar and DR Jayadeva know the KSLTA courts well and are capable of springing a surprise or two.
Karnataka are expected to rule the roost in the women’s section, with Arathi Ponappa, who won both the National Grass Court and Hard Court Championships, in fine fettle. V Archana, V Arathi and G Sheetal should provide adequate support.
Maharashtra, with Jhanavi Parekh and Janaki Krishnamurthy in their ranks, should prove tough customers. All the team events would be played over two singles and a doubles and as such the team with two good players has a better chance of pulling it off.
Tournament director GK Sangameshwar was, however, unable to throw light on the composition of the various teams. “Some teams have faxed fresh lists while others stated that their captains would have the option to change the list till the time of the draw. So, it is futile to release the composition of the teams now.”
Incidentally, there are to be nine entries in the men’s team event as both Chandigarh and Rajasthan have landed up.
“Only one of them was supposed to come. But All India Tennis Association secretary Ramesh Desai asked me to accommodate both,” said Sangameshwar.Thus, one of the two groups — Red and Blue — would have five teams and the other four. The draw, scheduled for 9 a.m. tomorrow, would determine which of the groups would have five teams. The top team in each group would advance to the final slated for June 5.
The individual events are expected to start on Wednesday. The AITA has nominated 12 players. Karnataka’s Prahalad Srinath, who scored over Nitin Kirtane and Susheel Narala at the Pune Hard Court Championships recently, does not figure in the list. He does not have sufficient points as he took part in too few tournaments. Srinath, however, is expected to be accommodated in the individual events.
The singles event would have 14 players in the fray. The top two seeds would be given a bye. The singles and doubles finals are to be conducted on June 7.On Sunday, the stadium courts were still being given the finishing touches and as such the players could knock only at the practice court situated outside the stadium. The organisers have offered to throw open the stadium courts at 7 a.m. on the morrow for practice.
