New Delhi: The Olympics evokes such extreme emotions in players that it completely transforms into relentless fighters.
Nicolas Massu, gold medallist at Athens in singles and doubles spent more than 24 hours on court, playing 12 matches in eight days. He was not tipped to even win a medal, let alone two gold medals!!!
If we scrutinize the three events India is entered in, our best medal hopes are surely the men’s doubles team of Bhupathi and Paes. As an unseeded player, Leander won the first individual medal for India since 1952 at Atlanta 96.
In between their busy schedules partnering different partners on tour, the Indian duo managed two tournaments before the Olympics, which did not yield perfect results. We will need to remember that the majority of doubles pairs at the Olympics do not play with each other on the tour.
The few who do play regularly will pose the biggest threat to the Indians like the Bryan brothers along with Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram pair from Israel who won the Aussie Open this year. It will be exciting to watch Rafael Nadal who recently stormed into the No. 1 spot in the world by displacing Roger Federer, pair with Tommy Robredo.
Similarly, Federer will be eyeing the gold also by joining forces with the promising Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka. The lanky Croat team of Ljubicic and Ancic will be a hot team to handle with both players towering more than 6 feet 4 inches in height.
If we were to go by what Leander promised during Davis Cup in April that the chemistry between Bhupathi and him is never gone, we do have some hope.
Sania Mirza will feature in women’s singles and doubles event partnering Sunitha Rao. Sania’s chances might have seemed much brighter a few months ago. I saw her play a couple of weeks ago at a WTA event in Stanford.
The demolishing forehand, her signature weapon, was spotty. Her footwork was a tad slower than usual, but more specifically, her confidence level was and is probably at an all-time low.
After her match, she admitted that her wrist was still bothering her and it even takes months sometimes to completely heal.
She will have her hands full in dealing with Serbians Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, Russians Sharapova and Kuznetsova and of course the ever- so- imposing Williams sisters.
Sania and Sunitha Rao are members of the Indian fed Cup team, but have never paired up as Sunitha started playing under the tricolor just recently. I have seen such new pairings win top level tournaments even in their first attempts, so we cannot discount them entirely.
Hosts China began their preparation for Olympics in the tennis event more than five years ago.
They did it with such meticulous attention to detail, single-minded effort and progressive thinking. They selected their top players, charted the schedule with training and tournaments and took responsibility for all their expenses.
The fruits of their labour are now visible in the women’s draw in Beijing. China has achieved the maximum participation number according to International Federation Rules.
It is not enough to long for medals, our Federations need to start planning on a long term basis and implement them systematically.
Nirupama Vaidyanathan Sanjeev was the No.1 player for India for 10 years (1991-2001) and has played all the Grand Slams. She was a member of the 2000 Olympic tennis Squad at Sydney. She now runs a tennis academy in Santa Clara, CA and occasionally writes and commentates.
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