The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Resurgence of a devalued tournament

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 27, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Resurgence of a devalued tournament

M.R. Praveen Chandran

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was a tournament that was started with much fanfare in 1975. And for many years it was an important event in the tennis calendar of the State. In the beginning, the G.V. Raja memorial Tennis tournament had a touch of international flavour and notable among the foreign participants were the Guy Losen brothers.

Indian tennis great Ramesh Krishnan, Davis Cuppers Sashi Menon and B.M.Balu were some of the leading Indian players who had taken part in the tournament which was started in memory of Colonel G.V.Raja, the founder president of the Trivandrum Tennis Club and the Kerala Tennis Association.

G.V. Raja, who left an indelible mark as the president of the All India Tennis Association, was a charismatic figure and when the tournament was conducted four years after his death, it had attracted all the top-ranked players from the country.

But over the years the tournament was reduced to the status of a local event. Gone was the international flavour and at times the tournament was conducted merely for the sake of it. The dwindling interest of players combined with the indifferent attitude of the organisers, the Trivandrum Tennis Club (TTC), the Kerala Tennis Association (KTA) and the district associations, saw the tournament not being staged on a few occasions.

The TTC, which organised the tournament all these years, will have to take all the blame for the sorry state of the tournament as the first signs of neglect came from it. There was a genuine lack of interest on the part of some of the managing committees of the TTC towards this tournament. Precious little was done to invite top-ranking players and to conduct this tournament regularly. Things came to a pass when the tournament was not conducted for the last three years.

The revival

It was in this backdrop that the present committee of the TTC headed by Captain P.K.R. Nair (president) and G. Balakrishna Pillai (secretary) decided to revive the tournament this year.

The organisers decided to increase the prize money substantially in an attempt to attract leading players from the country. "We were apprehensive at the start as the whole expense of conducting the tournament including the prize money was budgeted to cost us a little over Rs. 1.5 lakhs. Though we did not have enough funds we decided to go ahead with the tournament."

The 20th edition of the tournament, this year, attracted a few top-ranked juniors and it increased the overall quality of the tournament. The outstation players were more than a match for the local stars as M. Binu Mani, the top-ranked Kerala player, found out in an embarrassing defeat in the semifinals.

First-hand exposure

However, the G.V. Raja memorial tournament provided the first-hand opportunity for State junior players to trade their wits against some of the best in the country and was good exposure to some of the youngsters.

"We hope to conduct more tournaments in future. The success of this tournament will be a good motivation for us. We want to give more exposure to our youngsters. Normally youngsters from Kerala travel to Madurai or Chennai to participate in ranking tournaments. But not many can afford this. So we want to conduct ranking tournaments here on a regular basis," said Mr. Balakrishna Pillai.

The successful conduct of the G.V. Raja memorial tournament is a small step for the present TTC office-bearers who in the future hope to elevate this tournament to a status of an international event.

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