Philippines beat Sri-Lanka 5-0
For a nation, Tennis Player-development deals with producing players who can represent the country. If winning is out of reach, they should at least go down respectfully. It is with this as the reason we venture into competition and more so into international competition. We have been venturing into international competition without any sound local base for high-performance for too long in Sri Lanka. What more, we have refused to learn. Right now changing this attitude is the first hurdle to create better Tennis players. It has become a big hurdle to clear, we are so foolishly stubborn and have been refusing to learn and change, for decades.
Tennis-Marketing business
We have been going in the wrong direction. Our Tennis focus has become Tennis-marketing. This is the big story in the local scene and big business in our country’s Tennis. The current Davis-Cup team will be forgotten in 2015 soon after our relegation tie against Lebanon is over. This has been the pattern for a few decades. There is a joke about a millionaire tennis coach who uttered these words recklessly – ‘Three words made me a millionaire, they are – watch the ball’. This is the first instruction a player gets when they get on the Tennis court. Not that he knew less about Tennis but just that it was enough for the Tennis Marketing business. Tennis-Marketing is the right term to describe our present Tennis development. It develops ‘blind hitters’, makes money and not ‘game-makers.’ It is with ‘hitters’ that we are venturing into Davis-Cup!
An exhibition in ‘game making’
At the recent international ITF-futures in Colombo we saw some solid international Tennis players. In them, strength and stamina gave speed. Stability and suppleness delivered their skills. While the strokes came out of them with ease, their mind was engaged in ‘game making’ ideas. The strategic ideas of engaging the opponent with spin and speed, challenging with the use of court geometry, moving opponent to open court, placing the opponent to get more time and space, attacking to corner the opponent and beating with winners, were very easy to notice in them. They played their shots with purpose using ‘game-making’ ideas and with the vision of winning a game. Our players did not seem to have any of these to compile their games. One of our players lost the match in qualification without getting a single game. One need not have played Tennis to achieve this feat.
The physical presence
The lack of a good physical presence is a telling factor in our players. Their bodies would not last more than one ‘set’ in international Tennis. Whose responsibility is to build the body? It is the responsibility of the players. When parents are spending large amounts of money for Tennis, children pay very little attention or importance to physical development. To me it amounts to ‘robbing the parents.’ Right now, we do not have a single player who could be compared to the Late Bernard Pinto, P.S.Kumara, Arjun Fernando and others of the past in realising and working to develop the body needed for Tennis. Kumara and Pinto spent time on the field every morning and evening even on holidays. I was a witness of this. One issue today is there are no such examples to see and learn. Now, players go to squads in a very mechanical way. They come out the same way they went in. Unless the players themselves realise the need of a strong physical presence to play international Tennis, there is no hope in competition Tennis for our players. We have the advantage of television to see how well the international players are built physically.
Knowing your own strength
There is no player who is good at everything every day. Mighty Pete Sampras and maestro Roger Federer have suffered shock defeats due to bad playing form. In Tennis tactics ‘self’ comes first. In international matches a player will read the opponent only after about five games or so to help in tactical purposes. Then the first application of tactics until then should be on ‘self’ from the first game and then onwards, on the opponent.
Sri Lankan ‘touch’
We Sri Lankans have excellent hands. This needs explanation. Let me use cricket. We have had and have cricketers with good-hands. Arjuna Ranatunga, Sidath Wettimuny, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara have this which comes out as excellent ‘touch’. They used it at decisive moments to change the tide of the match in Sri Lanka’s favour. This is Sri-Lankans signature advantage in sports. Being unaware of this, our Tennis players use our weakness – which is stringent stroke making which maybe logical but not tactical. There are many aspects such as this which have not been identified in our present Tennis. All our past players used the ‘touch’ very effectively. Touch is a treat to watch.
Habitual Tennis
Most of our top rankers are ‘habitual’ hitters. It comes from squad training. So rigid are they in this that some go through the entire match without any tactical change even if they are losing. Lack of match experience is cited for this. It may be true but how a player can get ‘match practice’ being ‘parked’ in a squad? Today, our players waste more time on court than ever before. Little or no sets are played on a regular basis. This is another missing link in our Tennis.
The 2015 Philippines tie and the future
Harshana Godamanne had a serious injury issue. I do not know how he even managed to play one match but that was the only decent match Sri-Lanka played. We have too many ‘missing links’ in our National team. Currently, our Davis-Cup team has three coaches. Once a player starts coaching, he is not fit for competition. Coaching kills the competition mindset. Our players do not possess the physical attributes for five set matches. The service and the return departments are a disaster. Except for Harshana, none have good serves and return to lead the game or to get out of tight spots. We have to do something about the ‘missing links’ in our Davis-Cup approach. First thing is not to forget the Davis-Cup after the relegation tie against Lebanon this year, but to continue with a productive programme.
- George Paldano, former international player;
Accredited Coach of German Federation,
National coach Brunei & Sri Lanka,
Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach- USPTR
and ITF – geodano2015@gmail.com-