Lack of finances ruining Indian tennis

A few years ago, Indian tennis was in its golden age with players like Mahesh Bhupathi, Leander Paes, Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri leaving their mark tournament-after-tournament. Somdev Devvarman was lurking around and Sanam Singh had emerged as the next big thing after winning the Commonwealth Games doubles gold in 2010.

However, there has been a dearth of talent in the new decade with no young talent pushing the top stars consistently. While Ankita Raina, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Karman Kaur Thandi have been making waves on the domestic scene consistently, reaching the level of Paes and Mirza will require rigorous work and concentration.

Despite a great precedence being set for the young Indian tennis enthusiasts - the Amritraj brothers and Ramanathan Krishnan were lethal in their heydays - the narrow talent pool has been a major cause of worry.

The lack of financial backing is a major reason for the urban kinds not picking up tennis as a sport, according to the former stalwarts.

Speaking to The Sportstar, Bhupathi stated that corporate houses are looking to invest in Olympic sports instead of backing tennis, which is a major reason why great juniors are unable to make it big in the international scene. Zeeshan Ali echoed Bhupathi's views and added that Gunneswaran can travel and play competitions all over the world as he has a solid financial backing.

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Former tennis player Jaidip Mukerjea agreed with Bhupathi's assessment and said, "Travelling alone and playing five matches in five days, it's a tough sport. Everyone aspires to be a Federer and a Nadal. But after a while, their fathers get disillusioned."

Anand Amritraj was also concerned about the number of promising 14-year old players who vanish as they grow older. Stressing that more athletes need to compete at the grass root levels, he added that tennis in India is restricted to Indian cities, and a greater exposure is needed.