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Write it in golden letters
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Ernakulam's triumph in the inter-district championship is perhaps the beginning of a winning trend
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RARE CROWN The triumphant Ernakulam men's team, from left, Rynold Timothy, G. Ramamurthy, Govind Ramohan and Sanjay Bhat
Ask anybody. Tennis officials in the district do not know when Ernakulam last won the State men's inter-district title.
"I'm sure we've not won it after I came here in 1986," said P. V. Timothy, the Ernakulam District Tennis Association secretary, the other day. "I just have the results of the last three years in the computer," said Mathew Samuel, the Kerala Tennis Association secretary.
Not surprising. With Thiruvananthapuram being the dominant king of Kerala tennis for long, Ernakulam's performances in the State Championship over the last few decades have probably not been worth remembering.
Even players don't have an idea. "As far as I can remember, it has always been Thiruvananthapuram," said Binu Mani, the 32-year-old former State champion from Thiruvananthapuram. But now, it will be worth remembering. And worth writing down in golden letters in Kerala tennis' roll of honour.
For Ernakulam lifted the men's inter-district title, defeating defending champion Thiruvananthapuram 2-1, in Kochi the other day. The championship was played for the K. C. M. Mather Trophy for the first time. And it was won at the Regional Sports Centre courts. It's a combination one should remember. Ernakulam is now slowly becoming the hub of Kerala tennis and the Regional Sports Centre is a big reason for this. The RSC's synthetic indoor courts, which now allow year-round tennis, the good work done by coach Paul Koola earlier, the centre's tie-up with the Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy and the efforts of the State and the Ernakulam district associations are slowly bearing fruit.
A few years ago, leading tennis officials in Kochi formed the Cochin Tennis Trust and built an attractive tennis complex near the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium in Kaloor. Since the complex was in the heart of the city, and close to one of its busiest roads, officials hoped that the exposure and the lovely green synthetic courts would attract many youngsters to the game.
It did, though the St Albert's College, which owns of the land where the tennis complex was set up, has now taken back the land. The case is now being fought in courts with the tennis officials, who spent a few lakhs to lay the synthetic courts, claiming compensation.
Coming back to brighter things, interest in tennis is now picking up in a big way, if the response to the RSC-MBTA summer camp is an indication.
"People consider playing in the Bhupathi Academy a prestigious thing. That's why parents are keen on sending their children there," said the Kerala Tennis
Association President Noordin Mather. "Also, Ernakulam has the most number of tennis courts in the State, I think we have nearly 50 courts though not all of them are active," he said.
Govind Ramohan, who learned his tennis in Kuwait and improved it further in Bangalore before coming back to his home State Kerala, and the State men's champion Rynold Timothy played a big role in Ernakulam's hard-fought triumph in the inter-district championship. Budding stars Atul Roy and Aditya Bhat also helped Ernakulam to the under-16 boys title, blanking Thiruvananthapuram 2-0, which is another indicator that the future would be rosy.
"I feel this is just the beginning of a trend, the start of a long winning series for Ernakulam," said Mr. Mather. But our stars should not rest on their laurels. The State has some very promising players, they only have to play regularly on the national junior and senior circuits to hit big time.
"It's true, our players can do very well if they get good exposure in the national circuit. But in our State, even if players are interested, either finance is a problem or children are forced to concentrate on academics," says KSEB's Binu Mani who comes from a family of tennis stars.
Some of our players, like Jaco T. Mathew and Priyank Gangadharan, who have been touring the tournaments regularly, have done very well in the national circuit. Jaco went on to win the Junior National title a few years ago while Priyank, who moved to Tamil Nadu three years ago, is ranked No. 4 in the current national under-16 rankings.
We have very talented children in our camps. We just need to give them a chance.
STAN RAYAN
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