A month ago it was Somdev, now it is Yuki, feels good to know that our players are demonstrating that Indian players could also play singles and play at the biggest leagues and win matches! This is what we have always needed. Ever since Leander stopped playing singles, there has been a vacuum which a few players like Bopanna, Mankad, Amritraj (Prakash) tried to fill but with only a partial success. As what I have seen around while traveling to various tournaments, there is abundant talent in India, AITA should probably come up with a strong development plan and a system to ensure more such players are churned out and also help these players go beyond their limits or else we would be left with no choice but to celebrate a player emerging once in 5 or 10 yr out of their own ability. With my professional experience, i can vouch that it is possible with time.
Though I have seen Yuki as a young 8 yr old kid who used to tag along with his sisters Ankita & Sanaa and was always sitting and watching them play and he always amazed me with his understanding of the game which had come to him very naturally (this is why I always advice and think the best way for kids to learn the game is by watching / observing better players play, he was always watching his sisters or other better players in Delhi), it was in Oct 2007 during the ITF Futures we had in Bellary & Gulbarga where I was the Tournament Director that I saw he has the potential to get to the big league when he lost closely to a top 500 player. I'm just sharing what I had then mentioned in the release along with results which was carried by this website.
A time when there is a lot of talk about age cheating of Indian players in the circuit (which i personally believe is rampant), here the players cant be blamed but their parents, coaches and state associations, we have people like Somdev & Yuki who have shown that age cheating which has kind of become rampant the last few years, that it is not required at all if there is talent, hard work and determination. But certainly age cheating eats up to a few talent and somewhere the parents of a few talented kids who are playing correct to heir age, end up deciding that their kid is not good enough to continue in Tennis as they are losing to kids in the same age group but who are supposedly 1 / 2 / even 3 yr older! This is where the damage is being done. Because, Tennis or generally sport is still not seen as a way of life in this country. We have politicians raving about success of a few sports persons when they achieve something, and they get the publicity required to keep them alive in politics, but little they do to actually improve the standard of sports in this Sports unfortunate country.
Yuki should now work harder than before and have a focused program to transform into a a successful professional player. Junior Tennis and Professional Tennis are two entirely different cups of tea. Rankings don't ave any meaning in this sport. We all know that Leander himself being such an athletic and a tough person, took 7 yr or something like that to get into top 100 of ATP from the time he ended as No. I Junior player in the World at the age of 18.
Yuki needs to focus on building his strength which under good supervision would take atleast 2 yr to result. I watched him play Sanam Singh to who he lost in the qualifying rounds during the Chennai Open a month ago. He is still someway and sometime away from playing players like Nadal, Verdasco, Del Porto, Monfils to who he would probably be an opponent to after 2 yr. His planning should be taken care by experienced hands becasue if he doesn't make it to the top, this could be the cause! He should be aimed at peaking at the age of 20 and he has the next three years to work solidly.
I also hope that AITA takes advantage of terrific show by Indian Tennis players in the last one month (Somdev, Yuki, Mahesh, Sania) get players like Ramanathan, Vijay, Ramesh, Leander, Mahesh, Sania, Somdev, Yuki all together, produce a good promo and market the game the way it deserves to be to which could go a long way in bringing in focus, sponsors and create a system to produce more World Class players before it is too late!
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Though I have seen Yuki as a young 8 yr old kid who used to tag along with his sisters Ankita & Sanaa and was always sitting and watching them play and he always amazed me with his understanding of the game which had come to him very naturally (this is why I always advice and think the best way for kids to learn the game is by watching / observing better players play, he was always watching his sisters or other better players in Delhi), it was in Oct 2007 during the ITF Futures we had in Bellary & Gulbarga where I was the Tournament Director that I saw he has the potential to get to the big league when he lost closely to a top 500 player. I'm just sharing what I had then mentioned in the release along with results which was carried by this website.
A time when there is a lot of talk about age cheating of Indian players in the circuit (which i personally believe is rampant), here the players cant be blamed but their parents, coaches and state associations, we have people like Somdev & Yuki who have shown that age cheating which has kind of become rampant the last few years, that it is not required at all if there is talent, hard work and determination. But certainly age cheating eats up to a few talent and somewhere the parents of a few talented kids who are playing correct to heir age, end up deciding that their kid is not good enough to continue in Tennis as they are losing to kids in the same age group but who are supposedly 1 / 2 / even 3 yr older! This is where the damage is being done. Because, Tennis or generally sport is still not seen as a way of life in this country. We have politicians raving about success of a few sports persons when they achieve something, and they get the publicity required to keep them alive in politics, but little they do to actually improve the standard of sports in this Sports unfortunate country.
Yuki should now work harder than before and have a focused program to transform into a a successful professional player. Junior Tennis and Professional Tennis are two entirely different cups of tea. Rankings don't ave any meaning in this sport. We all know that Leander himself being such an athletic and a tough person, took 7 yr or something like that to get into top 100 of ATP from the time he ended as No. I Junior player in the World at the age of 18.
Yuki needs to focus on building his strength which under good supervision would take atleast 2 yr to result. I watched him play Sanam Singh to who he lost in the qualifying rounds during the Chennai Open a month ago. He is still someway and sometime away from playing players like Nadal, Verdasco, Del Porto, Monfils to who he would probably be an opponent to after 2 yr. His planning should be taken care by experienced hands becasue if he doesn't make it to the top, this could be the cause! He should be aimed at peaking at the age of 20 and he has the next three years to work solidly.
I also hope that AITA takes advantage of terrific show by Indian Tennis players in the last one month (Somdev, Yuki, Mahesh, Sania) get players like Ramanathan, Vijay, Ramesh, Leander, Mahesh, Sania, Somdev, Yuki all together, produce a good promo and market the game the way it deserves to be to which could go a long way in bringing in focus, sponsors and create a system to produce more World Class players before it is too late!
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Re: US$15K+H India F10, Gulbarga, Karnataka (Oct 22-28, 2007)
by jayakris » Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:28 pm
Sunil Yajaman's writeup on the fabulous Yuki show in the news release:
"15 yr old Yuki Bhambri was clearly the player of the day as he stretched the 466 ranked 3rd seed Ivan Cerovic to the limits in his first round match at the ITF Gulbarga Open, $ 15,000 +H event at Gulbarga today. Yuki Bhambri clearly demonstrating the future of Indian Tennis makes one feel encouraged to think that there could be a player who could take forward the legacy of Krishnans / Vijay Amritraj or Leander Paes in Singles.
Experience showed when Cerovic saved two match points at in the final set tie break to close the match 6-7 (8) 6-4 7-6 (6) in 3 hr 39 minutes. The Finalist of Bellary Open last week was in no mood give up on the fighting Yuki Bhambri. Bhambri was serving 3-5 in the final set when he held his serve & broke Cerovic in the next to level it at 5-5. Bhambri held the 11th game to go up 6-5 when Cerovic served brilliantly to push it to tie break. Yuki is a solid all court player & now he needs to gain the experience by playing more quality matches & put on more muscles. When that happens, he surely will be a formidable player."
Go Yuki!!!
Jay
"15 yr old Yuki Bhambri was clearly the player of the day as he stretched the 466 ranked 3rd seed Ivan Cerovic to the limits in his first round match at the ITF Gulbarga Open, $ 15,000 +H event at Gulbarga today. Yuki Bhambri clearly demonstrating the future of Indian Tennis makes one feel encouraged to think that there could be a player who could take forward the legacy of Krishnans / Vijay Amritraj or Leander Paes in Singles.
Experience showed when Cerovic saved two match points at in the final set tie break to close the match 6-7 (8) 6-4 7-6 (6) in 3 hr 39 minutes. The Finalist of Bellary Open last week was in no mood give up on the fighting Yuki Bhambri. Bhambri was serving 3-5 in the final set when he held his serve & broke Cerovic in the next to level it at 5-5. Bhambri held the 11th game to go up 6-5 when Cerovic served brilliantly to push it to tie break. Yuki is a solid all court player & now he needs to gain the experience by playing more quality matches & put on more muscles. When that happens, he surely will be a formidable player."
Go Yuki!!!
Jay
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sunilyajaman@gmail.com
sunilyajaman@gmail.com
