Tennis comes to rural Haryana via ‘akhara courts’

Deepender Deswal in Hisar

Move over traditional sports, tennis is the new in-thing in rural Haryana. After village boy Sumit Nagal put the state on the tennis map by winning the Junior Wimbledon title last year, another star is born: 13-year-old boy Ajay Malik. He won the National Tennis Championship at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Academy in under-14 category earlier this week.

Ajay Malik comes from Madina village of Sonepat district Ajay Malik and fifth seed Sumit Nagal belongs to Jaitpur village of Jhajjar. Nagal is also a part of India’s Devis Cup team. It is safe to say that the younger generation from Haryana has come to dominate rankings of the All India Tennis Association, both in boys and girls categories.

The latest AITA ranking is a firm indication: there are four Haryana players in U-14 (boys), and three players U-12 (boys) in the top 15 ranks -- highest from any state in the country leaving behind even Tamil Nadu which is known as a powerhouse of tennis in India.

The girls too are not far behind as three of them in U-14 category and two in U-12 category are among the top 15 ranks in the country.

Encouraged after winning the national title, Ajay, a student of class 9, has set his sights on joining the world’s big league. “I want to play and win the Grand Slam tournaments in singles. I am ready for any sacrifice. It is unfortunate that we are unable to win the Grand Slam titles,” he said.

His father is a retired Armyman. Ajmer Malik, who has been a national wrestler, said that his nephew, Sombir, developed interest in tennis and insisted on playing the game. “After retirement in 2012, I decided to set up a sports academy in my native Madina village. I constructed two clay courts on insistence of Sombir who learnt the game mainly by watching television. My son Ajay too showed keen interest and started playing. Initially, we worried about his academic career”, he said. Ajay Malik has got some offers from abroad and India’s top academies. Senior pros Somdev Devvarman, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna besides NRIs from Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and the US have offered to coach Ajay. 

Ajmer Malik says expensive coaching is the biggest block. “I want to bring down this cost so that talented youth even from a poor family can excel.” He has set up four clay courts and would have two more in the academy to facilitate training for the budding players.

“Tennis is expensive. To make it affordable enough ‘mud akhara type’ clay courts have came up in some villages. Boys and girls are getting hooked to this sport,” says government tennis coach Rajender Gupta. Haryana has six tennis coaches. “We plan to recruit a few more besides setting up new courts across the state,” says Gupta. 

Hisar-based coach Yogesh Kohli, 13th in AITA’s veterans ranking said, “Given the talent pool in the state, the government should set up better tennis infrastructure.”