KOLKATA : The Sunfeast Open has brought cheers in the Indian ranks. The tournament has placed Indian women's tennis in a salubrious mould. The reasons for hope were amply evident in the number of entries in the main draw which has five representations from the country.

The bonhomie is reflected in the reaction of the Indian Fed Cup captain Enrico Piperno, who is overseeing the prospects of the Indian ladies in the tournament. "There has been a marked improvement in the Indian scenario. The last few years have seen a very healthy trend. If things continue in this pace, I am sure in another 10 years you can see at least two or three more Sanias (Mirza) hitting the world scene,'' says Piperno with a note of confidence.

"When I took over in the year 2000 as the coach, the level of Indian team was zero in a scale of 10, now if we consider our National squad the count will be 5 or 6. Our Fed Cup squad is one of the best in Asia and that shows the improvement that has taken place in the last six years,'' he said. In absence of the country ranking system in the continent, the real position of the Indian women can be gauged from the individual rankings, which has three Indians in the top fifty. Sania Mirza leads the list ranked fifth, Shikha Uberoi is 21st and Ankita Bhambri 47th.

Latest assignment

Piperno's latest assignment is to stand in as the coach of Saina Mirza, who does not have a personal coach at the moment. Like most of the people in the country, he too hopes Sania will be able to come through her bad patch.

"She is low on confidence, that she is bound to be. After spending a long time high up in the rankings the opponents begin to read through the game. This is when one has to evolve a different style and find ways of going around the opponent's ploy. She needs to do that and I have been discussing shot selection with her during the training sessions.'' Piperno said. "She looks much fitter and her movement on court is faster. The slump in her rankings is temporary and that will improve again.'' he added.

The Indian women's team captain has more reasons to be upbeat. He feels the advent of player of the merit of Shikha Uberoi and the possibility of Sunitha Rao gaining the right to play for the country are positive signs. "The presence of Shikha has really raised the bar. I still remember when she started practicing with the Indian team the other players were awe struck by her level of power and fitness. It is then that they started realizing the importance of increasing their level of fitness and power.''

To have women's tennis go higher up the rungs, the team needs to qualify to world group stage. "We have a very good team. We need bigger success to raise the level of excellence. This will help in bringing women's tennis out of the present semi-amateurish set-up,'' he said.

Promising junior

He picked up the name of Tara Iyer, who lost in the final round of the qualifiers to seasoned Rushmi Chakravarthy here, as a promising junior from the country. "I saw her after a year. She is good but needs to tighten up her game. She moves well on court but her problem is with consistency, which I guess it will improve with experience. She has both the age and attitude on her side. If she continues with this level of improvement, I know she'll soon be knocking on the Fed Cup doors.'' he said.

The number is even more encouraging in the younger group. "I saw a grade-V ITF event recently in Chennai. I was impressed by the standard of the players. These 14-15-year-old kids really give us a lot to hope about. I can drop a few names like Kelsey Sundaram, Kyra Shroff and Prerna Bhambri who have the potential to make it big.'' He said. "I have been going around seeing how the kids are performing. The trend is quite encouraging,'' he added.

Piperno feels the All India Tennis Federation's should widen its developmental efforts. "AITA's already has a youth development plan in place but I feel it needs to focus on the academy structure in the country. I feel the individual academy coaches act selfish at times not allowing their wards to go out of their grip. The AITA should redefine the coaching system and have separate group of coaches for different age groups. That will help in bringing out the desired level of excellence,'' he suggested.

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