Asian Games: Indian tennis finds new torchbearer in Somdev

New Delhi: Emergence of a new men’s singles hope in Somdev Devvarman and resurgence of an injury-ravaged Sania Mirza were the highlights of a memorable 2010 for Indian tennis, which ended with the promise of more success in the coming season.
The country can now look upon Somdev to be the sport’s torchbearer in men’s singles while the doubles scene also brightens up with the estranged pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi reuniting next year — ending a nine-year separation on the ATP circuit.
But if there was one star to be picked for the year, it has to be Somdev. The lad from Assam had a dream run, impressing with his gritty performances everywhere he competed.
Being in and out of the top-100 ranking, Somdev reached a career high of 94 this October and justified his growing stature at the international arena.
He ended the year on a perfect note, thrashing top seed and much higher-ranked Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan to become the first Indian to win a tennis singles gold medal at the Asian Games.
The victory also made the 25-year-old one of the most celebrated Indian athletes in the Asian Games as he bagged another gold in the men’s doubles along with Sanam Singh, besides the team bronze.
In fact, the Indian tennis players had a good outing at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, where besides bagging two golds, they added a silver in the mixed doubles (Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan) and bronze in both the women’s singles (Sania) and men’s team event.

It was major improvement from the rather indifferent performance in the Commonwealth Games where they could managed only a gold, apart from a silver and a bronze.
Somdev again was star with the lone gold against his name after beating Greg Jones of Australia in men’s singles.
Sania had to be content with silver in women’s singles and a bronze — partnering with Rushmi Chakravarthi – in women’s doubles. It was nonetheless a turnaround of fortunes for the Hyderabadi, who had been battling poor form and a career-threatening wrist injury for better part of the year. The year, in fact, turned out to be special for the 24-year-old in more ways than one. The most prominent of these moments came in her personal life when she got married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik in April.
But ever the controversy’s favourite child, even tying the knot was not a smooth affair for the feisty star.
The build-up to one of the most high-profile cross-border weddings had all the makings of a Bollywood potboiler complete with an other woman which kept news channels busy with sordid details of her alleged first marriage with the cricketer.
Malik first denied it, then declared himself victim of a cyber fraud before finally divorcing the woman he allegedly married over phone to tie the knot with Sania.
After marriage, Sania took a break, recovered from the nagging wrist ailment and came back a fitter player.
Besides giving India four medals at the CWG and Asiad, she also bagged her first title in 17 months just before bidding goodbye to the year.
Currently ranked 141 in the world, Sania beat 80th ranked Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia in the final of the USD 75,000 13th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge in Dubai.