Thursday, November 26, 2009
While Mumbai was being attacked…….
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Indian Tennis - looking better
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
"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
sunilyajaman@gmail.com
Monday, January 26, 2009
As we prepare to welcome the new year's, lets pray for the World to be a better place to live in, not forgetting the joys & sorrows of the bygone year, take a bit of them to either lift or balance us. Lets find time to achieve what we hoped to but could not find time to, what changes we hoped to see, bring that within ourselves, find peace and happiness within us and stop looking for it in the outer world, enjoy the tide of roughness in our lives like a great man who said "Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors." We all came into this World being equal, "You were not born a winner, and you were not born a loser, you are what you make yourself to be and whatever you are today is because YOU have chosen this."
There are people who think that they could bring about peace in some place by fighting somewhere else. or companies who fire their people when things go wrong for no fault of theirs forgetting all the sweat the employees and put in all these years and contributed to the success of the company. Maybe retrenchments would only allow the top people to continue to lead a cushy life. We tend to forget that everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was. Let that not put us into darkness after all "The darkest hour is just before the dawn." Whether it has been the problem of terrorism or the financial crunch, let's hope it certainly is the darkest hour. What is, is. What will be, is what we make it. It certainly matters if we just don't give up. After all, the only way to overcome is to hang in!
Lets hope we could make the change we want to see right here & right NOW and I'm sure we could make the World in the new year a home filled with happiness for us to live and that World is within us!
Taking from the song 'We are the World' composed by Michael Jackson & Lionel Richie –
There comes a time when we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one……..
There's a choice were making
We're saving our own lives
Its true we'll make a better day
Just you and me
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day………..
Friends, Best wishes for the New Year and god bless us all
Sunil Yajaman
Monday, April 23, 2007
It should be seen as a blessing in disguise that Delhi did not get to host the 2014 Asiad. It might be worthwhile for the people who are sitting in the helm of Indian sports to worry about Grass root development in sports rather than trying to do lavish events to project themselves. Usually, about Rs. 4000 crores would be spent on an event like the Asiad. Is it possible that this money is now diverted towards grass root development & prepares athletes who could win medals in 2012 Olympics & beyond? Is it time to professionalize Sports in India further? I definitely feel that the time has come to remove all the honorary posts in federations & appoint professionals who could be accountable. Any more delay in this happening will only result in losing out a prospective medal in Olympics. Classic example is Indian Hockey & how it is down in the pots thanks to the President & other office bearers of the Hockey federation, they don’t seem to be ashamed or have lost all their moral values.
Everyone might just be happy when India performs well at the 2010 Commonwealth Games at Delhi (which is bound to happen) but is CWG a real test for our athletes? The performance of India in the previous Asiad is pathetic compared to wonderful performance at the previous CWG. Can the people who have been ruling Indian Sports or many years now wake up to call from within themselves, lay their powers down & make way for winds of change in Indian Sports? Indian Sports today need visionaries, visionaries who think of taking India to the league of Powerful sports nations of the world without any selfish motives or short term gains. It is high time we have accountable people running sports in India who should be willing to quit when there is no performance. Why can’t we incorporate the way successful Corporates are run into sports? Unless this change occurs, I’m afraid Indian sports will only go down further. It is even more alarming to see performance of Indian Cricket (though it doesn’t have any effect on Olympics) diminishing as it is the only savior for sports in India. I won’t be surprised to see Cricket reaching the level of current Indian Hockey Situation in a decade if the administration doesn’t pull up its socks. It might be worthwhile to consider having the Tatas, Ambanis, Narayanmurthys, Premjis, MIttals, Birlas, etc be given the responsibility of each Olympic sports. They don’t need to put the money in but their vision & attitude of running things professionally would be sufficient to bring in the winds of change in Indian Sports.
It makes me wonder if Delhi is the only place in India which could host an event like the Asiad. why can't the administrators think of other Indian Cities? That way, atleast World Class Infrastructure would come up in other cities. If a country like Korea could think of 3 different cities, our Sports Administrators should probably go back to learning geography.
If anyone is listening…..!