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| Sunday, 21 April 2002 |
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Tennis boss focussed on producing another champion by LAL GUNESEKERA My main ambition is to produce a 'champion' during my tenure. The last was Umesh Walloopillai who had the satisfaction of beating India's Leander Paes, a Doubles winner at the Wimbledon Championship with Bhupathy a few years back, and going 'great guns' in the professional circuit. Now Sri Lanka possess only players and that is one of the reasons we are struggling. This was one of the candid statements made by the President of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA), Suresh Subramaniam (41), who is a leading businessman. Further, Colombo based players tend to throw away their racquets when it comes to education, but now the SLTA has an Outstation Development Committee headed by another top businessman Janaka Bogollagama to spot young talent in the provinces, train them further and channel them to play 'full time' tennis like they do in India. Subramaniam further said that he is in the process of forming a Junior Development Fund (particularly for players between 10 and 18) to look after their progress and that he is on the look out for big time sponsors. He also said that tennis was an expensive sport: "When a 10-year-old student buys a racquet and when he grows up, he needs another every six months or so. To purchase a racquet you need a minimum Rs. 3,000. Sometimes you need two to three racquets per player and you need to 'gut' them on a regular basis - occasionally daily," he said. The former Royalist and national doubles champion, said that the SLTA was successful in negotiating with the Wilson agents in Malaysia through the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and they (the SLTA) gets around 2,000 balls a month free of charge. Subramaniam is also toying with the idea of finding some big time sponsors for Sri Lanka's National Championship to attract top players from the Asian region to play in Colombo, in an attempt to popularise the sport. In the 'good old days', players from India and the Philippines and even Indonesia played in the nationals. Subramaniam further said that the ITF will conduct two 'legs' of the Futures Men's Championship in Sri Lanka next year (2003), and his intention was to play one in Colombo and the other in either Kurunegala or Kandy, but these two venues will have to possess courts of international standards first. This year (2002), Sri Lanka hosted one such tournament with prize money amounting to US dollars 10,000, but next year's tournament will have US dollars 15,000 on offer for each tourney. The ITF will also conduct a similar tournament for women in Colombo next year with prize money amounting to US dollars 10,000. He also observed that the SLTA had concentrated mainly within their 'premises' in the past, but is now giving many incentives for clubs to conduct their own tournaments etc, and would like to see clubs like SSC and Queen's stage tournaments. He said, "Two years back there were only three ranking tournaments (Nationals, Colombo Championship and Bandarawela Open) but now the SLTA has 20 ranking tournaments islandwide including Panadura, Negombo, Ratnapura, Kurunegala, Nuwara-Eliya, Bandarawela, Kandy and even Batticaloa. ASP V. T. Sunderalingam, who is SLTA Ground Secretary, too has promised to get the sport started again in the Northern and Eastern Provinces with his contacts in the Police Department. Subramaniam further said, "A few juniors have done the country proud in recent times. Franklyn Emmanuel and N. S. Nishendran won two titles in India and even reached the semi-finals of the South East Asian Championship and are now qualified to play in the European Under-14 Circuit. Subramaniam, who started tennis at the age of 12 at Royal College, toured India, Thailand and the Philippines with the junior sides and won the national doubles titles in 1982 and 1983 with Arjan Perera. He was the runner-up in 1981 and 1984 too, and reached the semi-finals of the singles at the nationals. He comes from a family of tennis players. It was his father K. Subramaniam, who coached the family, but later D. D. N. Selvadurai 'took over'. Suresh's elder brother Ravi has now won the Travel Trade title for over two decades, while Yogan and Ganendran too have proved their mettle. Their sister, Keshini, too has done well. Suresh is married to Ranjitha (nee Thambiraja), and they have two children. Daughter Dushinka (16) won the Under-18 title at the Junior National Championship, but is now 'concentrating more on her studies', while son Revantha (14) was the runner-up in the under-18 singles recently at the Bandarawela Open. Both are students of the Asian International School. |
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