Nirupama Sanjeev (nee Vaidyanathan) was the first Indian woman to win a singles match at a Grand Slam, the 1998 Australian Open, and break into the top 200 of the WTA rankings.
The 43-year-old won the mixed doubles bronze at the 1998 Asian Games in mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi and came out of retirement to play for India at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Now based in United States of America, she divides her time between the California Bay, where she has a coaching academy as well.
In this interview, she discussed her career, life after tennis and some of the challenges that she sees facing Indian tennis today. Excerpts:
How did you get start playing tennis?
There was no real plan of action for me to start playing tennis. My dad was mainly training my brother and I had cousins who played green field level. So I was just a byproduct of the tennis around me. Nobody really expected me to pick it up and my dad didn’t really think about putting any effort into me. I was just a ball girl in the beginning. But I got so competitive that I was said ‘his is unfair, you have to give me time too, you know?’
My dad is just different, he thinks differently. He had a court that he was maintaining just for us so my brother, father, and I would go every morning, and I would pick up balls. In the end, my dad would give me five to ten minutes. But I kept hearing things about tennis in the background and I picked up tennis like that.
That’s where it started. I was so competitive that I really wanted more of my father’s time. It just so happened that my dad saw my interest and flare in tennis, and he slowly started giving me a lot more of his time.
How did growing up on clay influence your playing style?
Clay courts present several advantages for learning tennis. One advantage is that clay court tennis helps you learn how to set up the point. You can construct the point, which is very, very important in top level tennis. Compared to a hard court, where you can just blow your way out, clay you can’t do that. A classic hard court game is not necessarily ideal for Indians, especially when we are first learning how to play. We don’t have big bodies. We don’t have a big, muscle-power kind of game. We are more crafty. For our style of gameplay, clay and grass are better. And, of course, training on clay helps you build stamina.
So for my game, starting on clay was very useful. I started to like long matches. Over the course of my career, I evolved to play more at the net, and playing doubles really helped me in that respect. But clay was really good at the beginning stages. Playing on that surface helped me learn a variety of shots. I also learned how to use the angles of the court better.
In India today, I think it’s unfortunate that it is all hard courts now. There are a couple clubs with clay, like in Coimbatore. The club in Coimbatore is really wonderful. They hand roll the clay court every day. In Florida, where I sometimes teach tennis now, they have these golf carts, and they have rollers that come with a golf cart. In Coimbatore, they don’t have it as easy. Our guys in India are meticulously rolling the clay by hand! That is tough, tough work.
Who are some of the Indian players you have been watching?
I watch Prajnesh [Gunneswaran], and I watch Sumit [Nagal]. Prajnesh has a really fun game, he’s a left-hander, which I love to see. The problem with Prajnesh is that he has had such terrible draws, especially in the last two Grand Slams. He had Milos Raonic in the first round at Wimbledon and then Daniil Medvedev at the US Open. You do need luck, you need to have a couple of decent rounds and then you get settled.
On the women’s side, I know Ankita Raina. She is a very, very talented young lady. She and Karman Kaur Thandi are the two female players that I have an eye on.
What is some advice that you would give to Ankita and Karman?
I would love to see Ankita and Karman play on the tournament circuit in Europe. On the European circuit, you may not win much but you can learn so much. Sumit has done that and you have to give him credit for it. I feel that it has elevated his game.
I think these two girls need to do that too if they want to reach the next level. The tournaments in Europe may showcase some of their weaknesses, but that’s how you learn. Ankita and Karman have to do those kind of tough circuits to really get stronger mentally and physically. They both can share a coach and travel together. I think that’ll really help them get better, and then they can play some doubles together.
In my career, I always wanted to travel with somebody. To travel alone was so difficult. When you have two people who are almost the same level and kind of the same age, we should think about using each other productively.
How did you handle the funding part when you were competing?
When I first went to Europe to train, Indian Bank sponsored me and they gave me a good amount by Indian standards.
When I started living on my own, I had this chunk of money. The people who were training me at that point said when you win, you can give us money, which was very, nice. When I would win a tournament, I would be able to pay them. The money that I had was enough for me to travel and compete. I was living in Luxembourg at the time, which is so close to so many countries: Belgium, Holland, Germany, and France. These are countries where I would train and compete.
Whenever possible, I would try to get the tournaments to host me. There were families in the area that would host me, and other players like me. These families housed us and fed us and we would be walking distance from the club. It was quite fun to travel around Europe, compete in a sport that I love, and meet new people.
What advice would you give to players today to address challenges of funding?
In Indian tennis, it is all about securing sponsors who can help fund your career, especially when you are first trying to make it. There are two issues to keep in mind when trying to secure funding.
The first is related to securing the sponsor in the first place. The players need to ask themselves why a sponsor would give them money. So if say Sumit Nagal came to the Bay Area, we need to get him to do a clinic or a program that promotes a sponsor and then we’ll be able to begin collecting a decent amount for him. I didn’t understand that when I was younger. I would always ask why sponsors were not giving me money, when I was number one in India. I should have asked myself what I am giving a sponsor in return.
Sometimes I think we as players are very naive. I remember my dad typing out letters to all these top companies asking them to sponsor me. Now I think why would they do that? Players need to think about what they can give sponsors, outside of winning, to make the sponsoring worth it.
The second issue related to funding is that I think it would be great if you can get one or two other players that you can share a coach and a physio with. If the schedule can work out, you should travel together and do an entire European circuit or American circuit together. That could really help with saving money. You get the added benefit of building a friendship with a team member.
What other challenges do you think tennis as a sport faces in India with respect to building popularity?
India is a fascinating sports place. Cricket is king, of course. Tennis has not been marketed enough in India. Indians in general are very knowledgeable people, everybody is so well-read. You go to Chennai, and even the auto-rickshaw guy will know who Roger Federer is. But I don’t think we tap into that enough. We don’t really market our tennis players. I don’t think we have really good events in India that can make our players seen as idols.
We need to have more events in India, even if it’s just an exhibition with some of our players. We also need to go down to cities like Coimbatore or Vijayawada, smaller cities where people can begin to really love the sport. We need to market the sport in those places. I don’t think we’re doing enough of that.
Prajnesh, for example, is the most under-marketed player I have ever seen. I don’t know anything about him. In order to win Grand Slams, these guys need to be heard first.
The other related point is India’s need to build up tennis at the grassroots level in India. There’s a lot of stuff that we can do for children. For example, we can work with primary schools to promote tennis. You can teach young children about tennis, just like what the USTA does. You can have 10 and under tennis, and you teach children on smaller courts, whatever it is. It is not that difficult to build a tennis court at a school, and have some rackets for children to use.
Can you talk about state-level tournaments in India and how that influenced your career?
I think it is too bad that there aren’t as many state tournaments in India as there used to be when I was first coming up as a tennis player. These tournaments used to have several divisions: under-12, under-14, under-16, under-18, and ladies general. When I competed in state tournaments, I could play in a couple of categories, like for example, the under-14 and under-18 event as well. I was able to compete against women as a younger player. That really helped me get better.
These state tournaments also had prize money, so it was a way to get an introduction to professional competition. And, of course, performing well would allow you to fund travel to the state tournaments..
Another benefit was that the state tournaments were on different surfaces. Sometimes in the north of India or Bengal, we could play on grass.
These state tournaments also helped me see different parts of India. So, for example, I went to Varanasi for a state tournament. I was there for a week. You go to the club at 10 in the morning and play a couple matches. Then later during the day, you can hang out with friends. Then you travel together for the next tournament.
I am a bit sad that players do not have the opportunity to play in state-level tournaments in India today. We should have such a system. It would help players build camaraderie and also adjust to the life of a professional player.
Describe the experience of being a professional athlete while also being a mother. Serena Williams is notably competing as a mother. Can you talk a little bit about what she might be going through?
As a professional athlete, you’re supposed to be selfish. You have to think about your sleep, your food, your fitness, your workouts, and everything. When you have a child, that completely changes.
I think when you become a mother while still being a professional tennis player, you have to set yourself a goal in your career. You fit that career goal into the context of being a mother first. My goal, for example, was to play for the Indian national team. I wanted to win a medal too, and sadly, that didn’t happen. But I wanted to play for India. I made it happen.
Once that goal was achieved, I found that I either had to find a new goal to fit into my life as a mother, or I had to move on. When you are a parent and an athlete, your career becomes a series of goals that you can set for yourself in the context of your life as a mother.
Serena Williams is really inspiring in coming back after having her child. I think she has set her goal as winning another Grand Slam and I think that will happen. But after that, she will have to think about what’s next. She has to think of her next goal in the context of motherhood. My thought is that if Serena wins a Grand Slam, she may be hanging up her rackets. She’s achieved everything. I may be wrong, but that’s how I felt once I had the chance to compete for India as a mother and I had reached that goal.
This interview was published via Indian Tennis Daily. A longer version can be found here.