When the Beatles sang Come Together, they weren’t talking about the Indian Davis Cup team. The song should, perhaps, be played in the dressing room more often than it is.
Memories of India’s tennis contest always bring to mind evocative images, conjured up by racquets and the magicians who wielded them.
Way back in 1921, the Indian story got off to a fairytale start with a French conquest to reach the semi-finals. There may have been no tecnhicolour back then to capture the moment, but it put into motion an incredible journey that traversed three finals and numerous unforgettable victories.
The flag fluttered proudly those few weekends a year.
When did it all start going wrong? How did things come to such an ugly pass, as they have this past week?
The happy-Davis Cup-family act may have been perfected but, over the last 12 months, the smiles have hidden tensions and travails. It could be a simple clash of personalities — heart-on-his-sleeve Leander versus always-in-the-shadow Mahesh. Or it could be that Paes the captain was being Paes the dictator, and the juniors in the team couldn’t take it anymore. Or is it, as it has been historically in Indian tennis, just a clash of families?
FAMILY VALUES
First there were the Krishnans — Ramanathan was Indian tennis’s first superstar. He rubbed shoulders with the likes of Neale Fraser, Rod Laver and Lew Hoad, made the Wimbledon semi-finals twice. He passed on his touch tennis to son, Ramesh, who remained consistently among the top 30 players in the world at his prime and became a Davis Cup legend just like his dad.
But the Krishnans can’t claim to be Indian tennis’s first family without debate. Sandwiched between father and son, was the era of the Amritrajs. Vijay, the elder brother, was so promising in his early years that he was once labeled a part of the ABC of tennis — along with Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors. Honed on courts in his backyard, with brother Anand, he formed one of India’s best Davis Cup teams in history. Once Ramesh Krishnan had joined the squad, the sport scaled new heights.
In the modern era, there has been Leander Paes followed by Mahesh Bhupathi. Together they were a doubles pair that has set records that will be hard to beat, even if the bonhomie lasted only for a few seasons. They may not have scaled the Davis Cup heights of previous generations but managed to win crucial matches — Leander in particular — to be synonymous with Indian tennis in the late 90s and early 2000s. At the same time, their fathers — Dr Vece Paes, himself a former Hockey Olympian, and CGK Bhupathi, who took it upon himself to make his son an international tennis player while working in the Middle-East — grew in stature in Indian tennis circles.
Right though this 40-year progression, while Indian tennis grew despite the system rather than because of it, it has been these families that can be credited for India’s Davis Cup success. All the while, however, there has been simmering resentment between the households.
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