Indian Tennis Contingent For Paris Olympics: Players, Past Performance and Basic Rules Of Sport

With only 20 days to go for the Paris Olympics, Indian Tennis players are set to commence their campaign as Sumit Nagal will represent the nation in men’s singles. Rohan Bopanna will pair up with N Sriram Balaji in men’s doubles event and the Indian fans will expect either of them to fetch a medal for the national side.

Hyderabad:Tennis, the sport which is mostly dominated by the Europeans, is one of the disciplines to watch out for in the Olympics. India is still trying to make a place for themselves in the sport with players appearing for the country now and then. However, they exit early in the tournament usually except for a rare occasion which includes Leander Paes winning bronze in the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.

Great Britain is the most successful nation in the sport with 43 medals to their name in Olympic tennis history. The medal tally of the country includes 17 gold, 14 silver and 12 bronze medals. USA is in second place by winning 39 medals in the discipline. The record of bagging the most gold medals in the sport is in the name of the USA which has won 21 golds.

Tennis has been making sporadic appearances in the Olympics before it became a permanent discipline as a full medal sport in 1988. The first appearance of the sport was in the 1896 edition in Athens but it was withdrawn from the Olympics after 1924 due to a dispute between the International Lawn Tennis Federation and the International Olympic Committee regarding the definition of amateur players.

The discipline entered the fray in Mexico in 1968 and in Los Angeles in 1984 but it wasn’t a full medal sport till Seoul in 1988. Since then, some of the best players from across the globe have showcased their prowess in the discipline. The gold medal has been won by some of the greats of the game including Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Venus Williams and Serena Williams.

How Indian players qualified for Paris Olympics

The Men’s and Women’s singles event will feature 64 players each in the draw. The top 56 eligible men’s singles players, as per ranking released by the ATP on June 10. The athletes obtained quotas for their countries but each country was allowed a maximum of four quotas in the competition.

The 77-ranked Nagal made the cut. Thanks to the player cap per country and a spate of withdrawals from those who were ahead of him in the ranking.

Rohan Bopanna was world no. 4 in men’s doubles rankings when the qualifying window closed, enabling his qualification. The veteran tennis star chose N Sriram Balaji as his partner who was ranked 67th when their entries were confirmed by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) on June 19.

The Indian contingent in Paris

All eyes will be on Sumit Nagal who has earned an Olympic sport courtesy of showing consistency since last year. Veteran Bopanna will appear in men’s doubles and Balaji will partner him.

Nagal has taken huge leaps in rankings due to his performance. At the start of the year, he was at the 138th position in the ATP rankings, but now the 26-year-old is at the 73rd rank. Nagal won the Chennai Challenger, and Heilbronn Challenger and was a finalist in Perugia. He has shown a lot of promise so far but is yet to unleash his potential against top guns in the sport.

The Indian duo of Bopanna and Balaji hasn’t played together but the former’s monumental achievements in the world of Tennis spark a hope that they might be able to fetch a medal.

India’s Performance In Olympics

Tennis has never been a sport which got a lot of medals for India but it was a magic moment for the sport when Leander Paes won bronze in the 1996 Games held in Atlanta. He beat Fernando Meligeni in the third-place play-off to secure a podium finish. Thus, Paes became the first Indian to win an individual medal since Khashaba Jadhav won the bronze medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

The Indian players have been participating in almost every edition but a medal in Tennis has been a distant dream for the country since then. The duo of Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had high hopes pinned on their shoulders ahead of Athens 2004 but they faltered at the semi-final and missed a chance to win the medal.

This time around, India might not have much to hope for as Bopanna’s partner, Balaji doesn't have experience of playing against the elite of the game very often. Also, some of the top players from singles will also participate in the doubles in the Olympics and that might also make the challenge tough for the duo.

Basic Rules of Sport

For a successful serve, the player with service has to toss the ball up with his non-serving hand and hit it before it bounces. The ball should land in the service area marked diagonally opposite to the server.

Two serves are allowed per point for the server but if he commits faults in both his services, the receiver is awarded with a point.

Forehand, backhand, drop, smash and slice are the shots used by tennis players to win a match.

Players are required to win at least six games in a set to win it and bag three sets (in a best-of-five match) or two sets (in a best-of-three match) to emerge triumphant.

Players are required to win four points to win a game. The sequence of points is as follows.

First point - 15

Second point - 30

Third point - 40

Fourth point - Game

In case the game is locked at 40-40, it is called a deuce and then the player winning two consecutive points wins the game.

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