The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : A little known champion's trudge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 08, 2005

Sport

Sport - Tennis

A little known champion's trudge

By S.V. Sriram

CHENNAI, JAN. 7. Anonymity serves as a cloak while you slog away. While many would consider it a bane in this age of instant celebrity status it also serves as a challenger's most potent weapon. It takes the spotlight away from him and in a perverse way puts more pressure on the top seed, for he is expected to win no matter what while the journeyman has nothing to lose.

Circa 2000 and it was a very anonymous Michal Tabara of the Czech Republic who upstaged the tournament top-seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the first round here in Chennai. Tabara did not progress much, losing to Lorenzo Manta in the second round.

Flash forward one year and Tabara still was very much an unknown factor. Attention that year too was centred on seeds like Magnus Norman, Franco Squillari, Cedric Pioline, Byron Black and defender Jerome Golmard. At best Tabara was expected to maybe upset a seed and maybe run another one close. But not only did he beat the odds but also went on to win the title. That was and is, Tabara's only title.

In fact it was his best year on the Tour when he finished with a career high ATP Entry ranking of 47. He won a career best 20 matches in that year, including wins over much higher ranked players like Gaudenzi and Canas at the Australian Open.

Slipping down

But since then it has all been downhill. Not helping matters was a shoulder injury to his playing arm which laid him low for a period of six months in 2002-2003 and he found himself plonked at as low as 280 on the rankings list.

His return this year again was cloaked in anonymity and sadly for him his exit as well. Shunted on to the outside courts, Tabara's 2005 trip to Chennai ended in a straight set quarterfinal loss to Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Friday.

But for a person who unwinds to the strains of Metallica and whose favourite pastime one supposes would be to hit your favourite headbangers ball, Tabara isn't complaining. "I'm not too concerned by all this. I take it like every other match. This court or any other would do just as fine for me", said Tabara.

"The season two years ago was terrible for me. I had to pick up the pieces and start all over again. Every thing changed after the surgery. Because after the injury you need to practise a lot, you need the matches. I lost everything and my rankings dipped. But now things are much better," said Tabara.

"Now I have set realistic goals for myself. I'm taking it match-by-match, point-by-point and not rushing into things. I want to finish the year in the top 100 preferably in the 60s and 70s range".

"Last year I played in the qualifiers in Auckland and Melbourne and now this year in Chennai. I'm going through the process of playing in qualifiers and getting back into rhythm", added Tabara.

Probably the next year when Tabara chooses to return here, he might not be such an anonymous entity after all.

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