Another ace

Somdev Devvarman came to the Chennai Open ranked 202 in the world,and the rest is already history. He first took out Carlos Moya,once the highest ranked tennis player in the world,and then Ivo Karlovic,currently ranked 25th in the world. The highly articulate Somdev,23 years old and Guwahati born,had achieved a fair amount of success on the American college circuit,but Chennai has been his coming-out party. With Chennai,he has announced his extraordinary potential,and it will be one of the finer pleasures of 2009 to track how he builds on this success to move up the world rankings.

In a sense Somdev has burst into the news on a possible cusp. The year just passed,2008,was one in which Indias non-cricketing talent asserted itself. That was,alas,a year that began with Indias hockey team failing to qualify for the Olympics in Beijing but on the other side of the ledger,other sportspersons made it this countrys most successful Games ever. They returned home with one gold and two bronze medals. Those are slim pickings in comparative terms. Yet,in the individual analyses of the athletes who shone including Saina Nehwal,the badminton player who came so close to a medal but who has gone from strength to strength thereafter they were a good news story,showing that adequate professional support could yield dramatic results.

In the year before the Asian and Commonwealth games,then,there is much to look ahead to.