The men (and woman) of Indian tennis' Golden age

Anindya Dutta’s new biography of the colonial game in India throws light on the earliest and lesser known heroes of the sport

For the most part, cricket minded its own business, except when it came to tennis. Though the game of bat and ball was far removed from the racquet-wielding sport, it did play “a role in how modern tennis evolved in the UK,” shares author and sports historian Anindya Dutta. In the late 1800s, the sub-committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club, the most important sports governing body of the time, had decided on the shape and form of the tennis court, opting for a “rectangular” one over the “hourglass shape” by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, who is also credited with designing the boxed lawn tennis set in 1874. “Interestingly, it was one of the sub-committee members who came up with the modern tennis ball. Since the vulcanised rubber ball would become wet in the English weather, he asked his wife to cover one in white flannel. That is the ball still in use,” says Dutta.

Closer home in India—then a jewel in the English crown—the two sports stayed out of each other’s hair. “Its rapid expansion [in India] was entirely due to the British civil servants and their families who brought the game to their clubs, from where it gained its popularity.”

Mohammed Sleem in 1921

Dutta’s new non-fiction, Advantage India: The Story of Indian Tennis (Westland Sport), which is his first one on the sport—his last four were cricket books—documents how the game caught the imagination of colonial India in the early 20th century, before setting new benchmarks, first with its domestic leagues, and later, with some of its most historic and dazzling moments on court.

While the book discusses the biggest icons of the game in India—Vijay Amritraj, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza to name a few—it’s the earliest sporting heroes, whose stories largely remains unknown, which makes for an interesting read, especially for the uninitiated. “An important part of the early history of Indian tennis that had been lost, and which I rediscovered while writing this book, is the contribution of Lewis [Seymour] Deane. First, he was the earliest India-born Englishman to register himself as an Indian, when he played tennis. This is very different from the other British players. So in some ways, the winning saga of Indian tennis starts with Deane, when he won the Punjab Lawn Tennis Championships [the first tennis tournament in the country started in 1885] in 1909,” says Dutta, in an email interview.  He adds, “Next, he became the first man, along with Sidney Jacob, to reach the semi-finals of Wimbledon doubles in 1921. The same year he and Jacob were instrumental in taking India to the semi-finals of the Davis Cup, the first time we entered the competition. Finally, he was also the first Indian to reach the final of a Wimbledon event, making the mixed doubles final in 1923.”

Ramanathan Krishnan (left) with Sumant Misra in 1953

It is, however, the Fyzee brothers and Mohammed Sleem, who raised Indian tennis to the next level very early in its history, he says. “Their significance cannot be over-emphasised. The Fyzee brothers [Hassan-Ali and Ali Athar], both doctors by training, can undoubtedly be referred to as the first significant doubles team in Indian tennis, helping take India to the Davis Cup semi-finals. But they were far more than that. Hassan-Ali Fyzee was a remarkable man with a 66 per cent win-loss record in tournament play.” Mohammed Sleem, on the other hand, was India’s first tennis superstar, he says. “A respected lawyer by profession, he was actually the first Indian by birth and by race, to win a major tennis tournament, the Punjab Lawn Tennis Championships. After the 1921 Davis Cup showing, Bill Tilden, one of the greatest tennis icons of all time, called Sleem ‘the best baseline player in the world.’ Sleem ended that year ranked No.7 in the world.”

A significant game-changer for the sport was when Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, an accomplished tennis player herself, and the first health minister of Independent India, took over the running of the All-India Tennis Lawn Association in 1954. Dutta describes this as the Golden Age of Domestic Tennis. “The Rajkumari Amrit Kaur Coaching Scheme brought in foreign coaches for the first time across sports and, at the same time, provided opportunities to emerging talent to get a scholarship and raise their game. Some of the best players of the time came through this scheme. Parallelly, it was the Calcutta South Club that led the way in bringing in the best players in the world during the winter off-season and laid the foundations for the domestic tournaments around the country, where these players faced up against India’s best. This completely transformed the quality of the next generation of Indian players,” he feels.

Anindya Dutta

Three sportsmen came to define this period—Jaidip Mukherjea, Premjit Lall and Ramanathan Krishnan; the latter would go on to become one of the greatest players of the sport in the country. “There is no doubt about this. We are talking about a man who rose to No. 3 in the world in singles. No Indian has since come remotely close. He [Krishnan] was the first Junior Grand Slam champion from the nation. He beat the best players in the world regularly on the circuit—Rod Laver, Neale Fraser, Roy Emerson and many more. He helped India make it to the final of the Davis Cup for the first time with some remarkable victories, made two Wimbledon semi-finals, and could well have won the title the third time when he twisted his ankle. He is still revered among Indian tennis players today with good reason.”

If there’s a moment that marked the turning point for the game in the sport, Dutta says, “In terms of the early players, it must be the 1921 Davis Cup team getting to the semi-finals on their first appearance, shocking the world’s best side—France. That gave enormous fillip to the players and the sport for the next couple of decades.”

1885
The year the first tennis tournament in India started

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