Our guest writer this week is Hemant Bendrey who shares his experience about this years French Open -
Watching French open the Mecca of Baseline tennis is a dream for all tennis lovers, the place which tests all the aspects of tennis fitness, namely endurance, agility, power, speed and flexibility is Rolland Garros, for me as a tennis coach I always wanted to watch the French open as it was a real test of character. So being appointed on the ITF coaches’ commission which has one of its meetings during the French open was an opportunity for me to fulfill my long aspired dream.
I reached there in the second week of the tournament, this year there were not many casualties in the first week except the Williams Sisters, Nadal and Federer were on the track of reaching the Finals. First two days I was totally engrossed in the meetings of the ITF coaches commission, many points were discussed and action plans decided, some of the points discussed were - Allowing coaching on court, Introducing Super Tie break in ITF juniors apart Grade I and Grade II, Introducing Tennis coaching courses through Universities, Format for World Wide Coaches Workshop, New WADA ( World Anti Doping Agency)rules which are introduced from this Olympic year. Being a ITF tutor I always knew about the professionalism in ITF, but in this meetings I came to know how deeply they think on all aspects concerning tennis. The Best part of attending this meeting was getting an all access accredit ion card, which I was not able to use in the first two days, but from Wednesday I made sure right from the first to last match I was there. It was a great experience watching Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Almagro, Monphils and our own Mahesh Bhupati not only in matches but during their practice sessions. I made it a point of going and watching the only two Indians who had qualified in the junior main draw, Yuki Bhambri and Poojashree . I got some time to interact with them too; somehow they were not up to the challenge of the Europeans and lost in the initial rounds. Just being there and experiencing the electrifying atmosphere was an experience in itself, but the icing on the cake was yet to come, on Friday all the members of the commission were invited for the world champions dinner, this is a yearly function where number ones in all the category are felicitated , this year it was Roger Federer, Justin Henin, Bryan Brothers and all the world number 1s right from wheel chair to junior tennis, having dinner with such greats was something I cannot express in words, during the dinner I also got an opportunity to interact with Miguel Crespo, Research Director of the ITF, Paul Roetert ( Technical Director, USTA) whose books are like Bible for tennis coaches, they gave a lot of insight on the latest issues and topics concerning world tennis.
So apart from the return Air India flight which got cancelled, the experience which I had will be cherished by me throughout my life.
Hemant Bendrey
( Member ITF Coaches Commisssion)
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
FINAL DAY - SUNDAY 24 FEB 2008
Fantastic final day!
The semi finals and finals of all the categories were a treat to watch.
We would like to congratulate our winners :
Open - Amod Wakalkar & Vikrant Sane
40 plus - Nitin Joshi & Jaideep Date
60 plus - Kishor Saukar & Bipin Shah
It was a great display of tennis by all on the Sundays of the tournament.
We would like to thank Nature Trails for a Rs. 3000/- gift voucher oftheir adventure resorts to all the winners.
Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd. without whose support this tournament would not have been this good.
Deccan Gymkhana and Nitin Joshi - Tennis Secretary, for the courts and facilities.
Thanks to Nandan Bal for giving away the prizes.
We will be back in February next year with a bigger and better tournament.
Looking forward to the same support and participation from all the participants.
Check out photographs from the tournament on http://flickr.com/photos/24086292@N05/
Sudheer Ranade & Mukund Joshi
The semi finals and finals of all the categories were a treat to watch.
We would like to congratulate our winners :
Open - Amod Wakalkar & Vikrant Sane
40 plus - Nitin Joshi & Jaideep Date
60 plus - Kishor Saukar & Bipin Shah
It was a great display of tennis by all on the Sundays of the tournament.
We would like to thank Nature Trails for a Rs. 3000/- gift voucher oftheir adventure resorts to all the winners.
Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd. without whose support this tournament would not have been this good.
Deccan Gymkhana and Nitin Joshi - Tennis Secretary, for the courts and facilities.
Thanks to Nandan Bal for giving away the prizes.
We will be back in February next year with a bigger and better tournament.
Looking forward to the same support and participation from all the participants.
Check out photographs from the tournament on http://flickr.com/photos/24086292@N05/
Sudheer Ranade & Mukund Joshi
Sunday, February 17, 2008
SUNDAY 17 FEB 2008 - DAY ONE
WE BEGIN IN EARNEST!!!
Overwhelming response from all participants! The entries just kept coming. As the motive behind this tournament was to get maximum people to play, we kept adding players to the draw.
The Open category draw was full so we had to add qualifying rounds.
Nandan Bal inaugurated the tournament at 9:30 AM today. Thanks Nandan for agreeing to come to boost the morale of our participants. Thanks to Nitin Joshi, Tennis Secretary, Deccan Gymkhana for the courts.
Hats off to Kaushik Apte and Amit Gokhale for participating. They have never played tennis before and picked up racquets this week to play. Ajit Bhandarkar played a tournament after a gap of eight years!
We have had participation from Baramati and Walchandnagar! Apologies to Uday Inamdar and Dr. Gokhale for not being able to schedule their match on time. Uday is an IT professional, participating in the above 40 years category, had interviews scheduled today and had to leave without playing.
Standout performance of the day was from Sangram Chaphekar. He and Dhananjay Kawde had their hands full when they matched up against Ketan Dhumal and Yuvraj Harale in the quarterfinals of the open category. Sangram twisted his ankle in the second game of the match and played the rest of the match with a limp that got worse as the match progressed. They ended up winning 8-6.
There were many stories of gritty performances and great matches today. More importantly all the players who play at different tennis clubs all over Pune and outside, made an effort to schedule their weekend to participate. All of them pushed themselves and their bodies beyond their normal limits of endurance. There were many matches won but the real winner was TENNIS!
Semi finals and finals will be played on Sunday 24 Feb 2008
Schedules will be put up at Deccan Gymkhana on 21 Feb 2008
Mukund Joshi & Sudhir Ranade
Overwhelming response from all participants! The entries just kept coming. As the motive behind this tournament was to get maximum people to play, we kept adding players to the draw.
The Open category draw was full so we had to add qualifying rounds.
Nandan Bal inaugurated the tournament at 9:30 AM today. Thanks Nandan for agreeing to come to boost the morale of our participants. Thanks to Nitin Joshi, Tennis Secretary, Deccan Gymkhana for the courts.
Hats off to Kaushik Apte and Amit Gokhale for participating. They have never played tennis before and picked up racquets this week to play. Ajit Bhandarkar played a tournament after a gap of eight years!
We have had participation from Baramati and Walchandnagar! Apologies to Uday Inamdar and Dr. Gokhale for not being able to schedule their match on time. Uday is an IT professional, participating in the above 40 years category, had interviews scheduled today and had to leave without playing.
Standout performance of the day was from Sangram Chaphekar. He and Dhananjay Kawde had their hands full when they matched up against Ketan Dhumal and Yuvraj Harale in the quarterfinals of the open category. Sangram twisted his ankle in the second game of the match and played the rest of the match with a limp that got worse as the match progressed. They ended up winning 8-6.
There were many stories of gritty performances and great matches today. More importantly all the players who play at different tennis clubs all over Pune and outside, made an effort to schedule their weekend to participate. All of them pushed themselves and their bodies beyond their normal limits of endurance. There were many matches won but the real winner was TENNIS!
Semi finals and finals will be played on Sunday 24 Feb 2008
Schedules will be put up at Deccan Gymkhana on 21 Feb 2008
Mukund Joshi & Sudhir Ranade
Monday, February 11, 2008
Sponsorship from Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd
We are glad to announce that Motilal Oswal Secruties Ltd, a leading reasearch and stockbroking company will be the principle sponsors fo the tournament.
We would like to thank Mr. Sreekumar Nayar and Mr. Rakesh Iyer for extending their support.
We would like to thank Mr. Sreekumar Nayar and Mr. Rakesh Iyer for extending their support.
First Annual Ice Dale Open
Hello Everybody,
Welcome to the first annual Ice Dale Open a Men's Doubles Tournament to be held at the Deccan Gymkhana Courts in Pune. The last date for the entries is the 15th of February and the tourney will be played over two consecutive Sundays the 17th and the 24th of February. We will have three categories, Open, Above 40 years & Above 60 years.
Matches in the initial rounds will be a traditional set with one point deuce. Quarter Final onwards we will have a race to 9 games and the Finals will be a race to 11 games.
For further details and to participate please contact Mukund Joshi at 98230-56947 and Sudhir Ranade at 9371007404.
We are looking at making this event a huge success, participation and feedback are most welcome. Please feel free to add comments and suggestions.
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