Legacy of tennis development
View(s):In the 1850s, coffee planters in Kandy district made tennis courts. Their Kandy Garden Club still exists displaying the year of its inception at the pavilion entrance. Our tennis development began there. British sporting legacy in our island began with cricket played on the Galle Face Green in 1830s.
By the time our independence, there were tennis clubs in every administrative segment being sport of the government servants. For historic reasons tennis clubs could not sustain itself. What we have now is the skeleton of the old ship. This trend has taken recreational tennis into the history books.
New horse – Junior Development
The tennis administrators in the early independence era were Lionel Fonseka then his son Wimbledon doubles player Douglas Fonseka and Mahinda Dunuwila. They operated the Association for two decades then went into the able hands of Cedric de Silva. After him, Junior Development was the ‘brand name’ not recreational tennis. There were conflicts and confrontation with the two segments.
I myself must have been a member of more than 10 development squads. The preparatory target was to perform in the Indian Tennis Circuit and to the Davis Cup team. Our coaches were players of past, Charlie Pestonjee, Coo De Saram, Douglas Fonseka and a few more. It went on until the first Australian qualified coach D.D.N. Selvadurai arrived.
Something was right in the early formula. That is the preparation for the well-known Indian circuit for performance. The best of the world played in the winter Indian Circuit. Global elite group of over thirty players, from Grand Slam winner Rod Laver to Ille Nastase graced the Indian Circuit for four decades. The platform produced best of Indian players including the Indian semi Wimbledon semi-finalist Ramanathan Krishnan. The second factor that was right in choosing the Indian circuit was the acceptance tennis to be international and not exclusively to our ranking needs.
Our sporting fields
Our sports fields and tennis clubs were never state sponsored, but recreational player based institution; clubs. At the most, municipal and urban councils provided space at a very nominal cost. This privilege removed in Sri Lanka. Islandwide counting now, good and bad tennis courts, we may come up to 150 for the 20 million living in the island. Of which less than 5% is available to recreational tennis, that too only on a time sharing basis.
Record shows success in player development is not dependent on the number of players reached but the selective few getting all necessities in the correct progressive intensity. A complex and unacceptable selective approach when considering public land and funding is involved.
Current international scenario
In the past four decades, we have had many development programmes. They were mostly International Tennis Federation [ITF] leads. We have the affiliation to ITF since 1915. ITF came up with the global junior ranking system. They made us conduct many events and allowed us to use events in other countries. Rohan de Silva, Umesh Walloopillai, Saranga Sangakara, Lihini Weerasooriya made a recognisable mark in the ITF rankings.
At present ITF ignored by leading tennis nations. For them WTA and ATP matters. Entry into Global Open events are solely by WTA and ATP rankings. Players must face professional platforms in very early development. Good many Grand Slam entrants this year were in their teens.
With all our efforts, local tennis standard did not get to the international need solely because of the design. It is in this dearth of player development outcome, a national pool is created. There will be good many issues going ahead with this. The salient will be to identify and to deliver all the needs for international recognition to few good players and not all. In reality, very few nations are successful at this.
Olympics
In 2020 and 2021, all sports, without exception faced and are facing unwelcoming reception from all fronts. The oldest of known event in sports is Olympics, the Greek European legacy of classicalism in physical expression and achievement. The current event in Japan, postponed last year, is facing resistance even to conduct in an unacceptably low profile in their soil. The tired organisers working for years have spent billions of dollars want it wrapped up in any form possible as scheduled in July 2021. The Covid-19 precautions for the event will cost a hefty figure and a backlash is to be expected. Elite tennis players have declined to travel to Japan some tested positive.
Djikovic, in Grand Slam threshold
The first of the Grand Slam event of 2021 was the Australian Open Djikovic beat Medvedev in the final on the Melbourne hard courts to win the title. In the second Grand Slam French Open in Paris, he beat Tsitsipas for the title on red clay. In Wimbledon, he won the title beating Berrettini in the final on London grass. The last of the Grand Slam event will be in New York on hard courts, a surface on which Djokovic has full-fledged competency. There is room to say, Grand Slam, winning all majors in one year by one player, after 51 years is a possibility. The last to achieve this is Rod Laver in 1969. According to Rod Laver the secret of winning Grand Slam rest in the personality of the player than in tennis skills. The ability to win when not playing well is the secret.
—George Paldano, Former international player; Accredited Coach of German Tennis Federation; National coach Brunei and Sri Lanka, coached ATP, WTA and ITF top 200 ranked players, Davis-Cup, Federation-Cup coach. — geodano2015@gmail.com