Is it possible that we have a successor to Leander Paes, at last?
Till the other day, most Indians would have struggled to name the country’s highest ranked male tennis player. They would have perhaps muttered “Leander Paes” as a guess that would have worked over the past decade and more.
But two days is a long time in sport, especially so when a country does not have anyone in the top 200. Somdev Devvarman, by beating Carlos Moya of Spain — former World No 1, former French Open Champion — in the second round of the Chennai Open (which Moya has won twice) has made sure that many more would answer the opening question correctly.
Just who is Devvarman, and why didn’t we hear of him before? To begin with, he is not really a young hope who has burst out of the blue. He will be 24 on February 13; male tennis players are generally at their peak at this age. He is not unheralded either, just that he has so far plied his trade mostly in US college tennis.
Things may have turned out differently for Devvarman had he stayed in his home town, Chennai, but a campus visit to Virginia changed it all. The skinny right-hander drew interest from a handful of small American colleges, but Virginia coach Brian Boland impressed Devvarman by travelling to Chennai for a recruiting visit.
Four years later, Devvarman graduated with the reputation of one of the best collegiate tennis players ever. He made college tennis history by making it to the NCAA finals three times in a row, winning the last two, set a school record for wins in a season (44), and became the third player to win the Intercollegiate Tennis Association men’s national player of the year award twice.
He turned professional last June and has enjoyed a spectacular run since then. He started 2008 ranked 1,036 and finished the season at 202, getting past his more established compatriots, Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna, in ATP rankings.
Last year he won three Future tournaments and then the hard court Challenger in Lexington, where he defeated five players inside the top 200. At that time, Devvarman was ranked 566.
Since the rise of Leander Paes, a number of names have come up as his possible successor, but all of them flickered only briefly before belying the initial optimism. Devvarman has pedigree and, given his years on the college circuit, perhaps the maturity to handle the grind of the international circuit.
He is not a spring chicken, but Indians do tend to mature late and last longer. If he continues to play into his thirties, his name may become the obvious guess as India’s number one male tennis player.
