India is a tennis loving nation. We have a lot of tennis talent in India. Yet we are not taking advantage of the situation by taking steps to grow and promote the sport at the grass-root level. We are not taking that next step to groom young players, which other tennis playing nations like the US, Australia, Spain, France, Germany, UK are all doing.

What are we doing to groom our 14, 16 year olds to play the game at a global level and to compete with talents from these nations? To whom do our youngsters go for advice? How do they ensure that the advice they are receiving is not misleading. That they are being trained and guided in the right way?

We need better localised events and better playing conditions, so that the kids are able to play week in and week out. Our training methods need to change.

A lot of time when I go to tennis academies in India, I feel that our coaching standards and techniques are set. Kids are being trained like the way they are being trained in the 80s and 90s.  The goal should not be to train youngsters to become the best in India. There will always be a national champion. Our goal should be to develop their capabilities so that they can compete with some of the best in the world. To do that our coaching needs to get a lot better.

We need to see what the elites in the game are currently doing. So that we can bring in a lot more intensity and focus in our practice sessions, fitness sessions and also know how to construct matches. This is the reason why I had proposed a National Academy where we can bring in some of the best coaches and groom youngsters for the next generation.

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