Tennis

Tennis is a racket sport in which two players, or teams of two players, send a ball over a net in such a way that it is difficult to return legally. Modern tennis has the roots in the old French game of paume, for which the rules were written in Paris in 1592. English major Walter Clopton Wingfield drew on these rules when he patented the game of tennis on February 23, 1874; 25 rules for play were defined in May 1875. The first championship took place at Wimbledon, a suburb of London, in July 1877, and the first international championships were held in the United States in 1881, in Australia in 1905 and in France in 1925. Tennis was part of the first Olympic Games of the modern era, in Athens in 1896; it was withdrawn from the Olympics after 1924 and reinstated in 1988. Since 1913, the sport's governing body has been the International Lawn Tennis Federation, which became the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in 1977. Tennis is played in most countries, and players range from 5 or 6 years old to veterans of over 80. The game is played in men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles..

The Match

The side of the court that each player will occupy first and who will serve first is both chosen by a draw; the player who wins the draw may choose to have the opponent serve first. The server has two chances to serve, and usually put the most effort into the first serve, trying to unsettle the opponent with its power or placement. The player scores a point if the serve is an ace - if the opponent cannot touch the ball or if the opponent returns it out of bounds or into the net. A served ball must always be returned after it has bounced once. During the rest of the rally, players may return the ball before or after it bounces.

How the Scoring is done

A match is divided into sets, games and points and may be played in 2 out of 3 sets or 3 out of 5 sets, at the organizer's discretion. A set is a series of games. The winner of 6 games wins the set, as long as the margin is 2 games. If the score is tied at 6-6 a tiebreaker is played. The first player serves once, and then each player serves twice. The player who reaches 7 points by a margin of 2 points wins the game and the set. A game is a series of points, scored as follows: 0 (“love”), 15, 30, 40 and game. If the players are tied at 40 (“deuce”), one of them must score 2 consecutive points to win the game. The first of these points is called “advantage”.

In modern day tennis there is no stopping the Swiss No. 1 rank player Roger Federer who seems to be going great guns at practically all ATP tournaments. Just recently Roger got past Richard Gasquet to win his seventh title of the year in his 17th consecutive final. The Swiss reached his 17th consecutive final, one shy of Ivan Lendl's AYP record. Federer, 25, won his 18th match in a row and stretched his North American hard court win streak to 55 matches. He improved to 62-4 this year, 61-0 against everyone except Rafael Nadal. Federer's 11 ATP Masters Series titles match Pete Sampras for second on the all-time list, six shy of Andre Agassi's record.

A slide has resulted in American Women's Tennis. The William sisters Serena and Venus are not yet in the formidable form they used to be. At one point of time - Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova reigned supreme for the US for a good number of years.

However, the Russians like for instance Maria Sharepova, Elena Dementieva and Serbia's Jelena Jankovic have made a tremendous impact recently. The Russians are up in arms against top notch players like Justine Henin Hardene, Amelia Mouresmo and Kim Clijsters. This has greatly helped to make the WTA tournaments more competitive and challenging.

     Looking Ahead & Beyond

The University of Mumbai will soon start a Bachelor of Science (BSC) degree in sports management. This is part of its 150th year celebrations and is likely to start from this academic year itself. The syllabus for the course has been decided, however, other modalities are being worked out. The course, the first of its kind in India, will be open to all candidates who have passed the 12th standard irrespective of the stream. For instance, a student who has passed his junior college in the arts stream will also be eligible for the course, unlike in other disciplines.

There are only 30 seats available. The course will be a residential one based in the University campus in Kalina. There will be seven common papers in the first two years. In the third there will be four common subjects with one optional from sports journalism and media, event management and excellence in a particular game. The students also have to complete a project in the chosen subject.

The games to be specialized in are football, cricket, athletics, volleyball, basketball, table tennis, kabbadi and kho-kho. The University has also tied up with the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and Sports Authority of India (SAI) for the same. The University has tied up with the National Institute of Sports in Patiala and Gwalior for faculty members.

After effects of the World Cup in Germany

Never before has a World Cup had such an electrifying atmosphere as this year's tournament in Germany. It was a fan festival designed to delight the crowds and take the game to a totally new level. In terms of ability, there was very little to choose between the teams in this World Cup. Asian teams are slowly closing the gap, even though they sometimes lack that little bit of class.

Does the future hold good for Indian football? It has now been decided to implement professional football in the country shortly. As this proposal will come into effect from 2007 it would be in the fitness of things for the State bodies to also introduce professional football in their respective States. It would be one constructive way of promoting the game. It is about time that even Mumbai football MDFA works along these lines as it is being done in Goa where the participating clubs had taken the initiative a couple of years ago. It is now left for the AIFF to ensure that the respective States adhere to these guidelines for the betterment of the game at large.

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