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Journalism of Courage
Less than 12 hours after returning home to Delhi, tennis player Yuki Bhambri was on the way to the airport again.
One would think that winning a Grade A tournament a couple of days ago merits a bit of rest as a reward, but not when the Commonwealth Youth Games awaits its second seed in the tennis event.
8220;It is very hectic right now, but I8217;m playing well, so it8217;s good for me to get a lot of tennis,8221; he says.
8220;The clay and grass was just a bad patch, it was the first time I was playing on grass, so I was bound to find it tough. Hopefully as the hard court season continues, I will keep improving.8221;
The US Open, too, ended in a disappointing second-round exit for the youngster, but the weeks put in at Nick Bolletieri8217;s academy in Florida clearly brought about a world of change.
A fourth-place finish in Mexico at the Junior Davis Cup, and now the Osaka Mayor8217;s Cup singles title 8212; which earned him a whopping 250 circuit points 8212; and the going looks good again. Grade A tournaments on the ITF junior circuit are just a notch below the Junior Slams, and consequently offer the most points after the Slams.
8220;The junior Davis Cup performance was something I never expected. It was going to be very tough because there were so many good teams there, but we got a few crucial doubles results to go our way, and that helped,8221; he says, leaving out the fact that it was his singles victories that played a much more vital role.
8220;There were a lot of high quality players in Japan last week as well, it was Grade A after all. The Europeans are always good, and even the Japanese were a threat, since it was their home territory. The amount of local support was unbelievable when I beat Hiroki Moriya in the final, there had to be at least six to seven thousand people,8221; says Yuki.
8220;This time at Bolletieri I changed my serve and worked on being more aggressive, coming to the net a lot, and in the past few weeks, I8217;ve had a chance to try it all out in the tournaments. It8217;s always a great experience to train there, because I get to train with so many good players.8221;
After the Youth Games, Yuki will be playing a Grade B1 tournament in Indonesia, followed by another training trip to Florida.
