The Hindu : Sport : Amritraj cousins flatter to deceive

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Thursday, Jan 06, 2005

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Sport

Amritraj cousins flatter to deceive

By Vijay Parthasarathy

BACK ON TRACK, BUT... : Stephan Amritraj (left) and Prakash Amritraj celebrating after taking the second set in the doubles match against Karsten Braasch and Robert Lindstedt. The cousins then went on to lose the third set and the match. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI, JAN. 4. The Amritraj cousins, with their chest thumps and facial contortions, reminded us a little of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi; even raising hopes briefly of pulling off an upset win over Karsten Braasch and Robert Lindstedt before they were subdued 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in a first round doubles match of the Chennai Open on Wednesday.

The affair was witnessed by a surprisingly large Centre Court crowd; although you suspect in the beginning, most remained in their seats after the intense Bjorkman-Gimelstob match purely on account of inertia.

Prakash was broken twice in the first set, and Braasch-Lindstedt attacked Stephen's second serve aggressively, hitting countless winners down the middle to take the first set 6-2. Prakash is a decent serve and volleyer, and he produced some flashy shots down the line; but as has been the case in singles, he was unable to produce them consistently enough. The occasional volley or pass down the flank elicited polite applause from the crowd, which seemed reconciled to another Indian defeat.

Prakash's serve was broken in the fifth game of the second set, giving the opposition a 3-2 lead. The Indian-American pair broke right back in the next game, however to restore parity; and Stephen held for a 5-4 advantage. Prakash missed a simple overhead in the next game, but a superb forehand down the middle gave the Indian pair the second set 7-5.

Linstedt was broken in the fourth game of the third set, and Stephen began to hop around excitedly between serves. The cousins then went up 4-1 — and just when you were beginning to hope, they did a Jana Novotna and lost the next four games, before Braasch served out the match.

Encouraging sign

From the broader perspective, the attendance today was encouraging because not even matches involving Leander Paes or Mahesh Bhupathi have drawn in the crowds this week. The situation is nothing new: year after year, the doubles matches have generated as much buzz as a disastrous ad-campaign.

Across the globe, tennis remains an elitist sport; in India, where teenagers have worshipped Sachin Tendulkar since the time they were sullying their nappies, Paes and Bhupathi, amazingly enough, are still regarded as national icons.

On the other hand, so is Mother Teresa.

In 1999, the pair became the first doubles team in 50 years to reach the finals of all four Grand Slams, managing to win at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. They finished the year ranked number one; and for a change, kids (and, more importantly, their parents) appeared distracted by something other than cricket. To be honest, the duo might have benefited from the retirement of several peers like Jacco Eltingh; but there is no denying Paes-Bhupathi had the potential to rank alongside the likes of the Woodies, as an all-time great pair.

On the wane

But since their infamous split, interest in the Indian duo has steadily waned, although Bhupathi is still ranked among the top five and Paes, in the top 20.

In general, it's difficult to market doubles because the top singles players rarely pair up these days. That's understandable: there is so much wear and tear in the game today, and someone like Federer would rather conserve himself for the final stages of a tournament. You hear about the disparity in prize money awarded to men and women; but think, just for an instant, of the gap that exists between men's singles and doubles.

A couple of years ago, tennis legend Ken Flach made a rather dramatic remark to the effect that he believed doubles could soon face extinction. Doubles, he said, was more a social event than anything else. "It's something you play well into your senior years, you only have to cover half the court," he said then. "The top guys don't play; so you have guys who love to hang 10 feet behind the baseline, who all of a sudden find themselves stuck two feet in front of the net."

While doubles still remains very much a part of the circuit, the ATP and event directors are increasingly giving doubles slots to players who are already part of the singles draw; and doubles specialists are consequently affected.

Sadly, we might never again see another John McEnroe, who was, for a period, ranked number one in both singles and doubles. The cult of specialists, ironically, threatens to wipe out some of our best memories of, what is primarily, an individual sport.

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