‘Our session about serves with Greg and Marcos meant a lot,’ says Myneni
Alize Cornet of Raipur Rangers during practice session at CLTA in Sector 10 for their upcoming CTL 2015 match in Chandigarh on Thursday, November 26 2015. (Source: Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)
DURING THE Punjab Marshalls’ practice session at CLTA Courts on Thursday, team legend and captain Greg Rusedski along with Marcos Baghdatis was seen giving tips to Indian player Saketh Myneni. The British and Cypriot player were watching Myneni closely and also kept telling him about serves. Perhaps it was those tips which worked for Myneni as he partnered with Baghdatis earlier this week to win the doubles match in the tie against Mumbai Tennis Masters. With the Marshalls playing their opening home game against Raipur Rangers on Friday evening, captain Rusedski sounded confident of a win.
“Our opening match was very exciting and we fought very hard as a team. Unfortunately, I lost to Richard Kraijek. Then Elena Svitolina played a close match and went down to US champion Panetta. But then in the mixed doubles, Elena and Marcos claimed a win and in the doubles too, Saketh and Marcos showed a fighting spirit and we were able to win the last match too to win the tie. Playing in humid conditions in Mumbai was really tough and it’s a great effort from our tam. We are ready to face Raipur Rangers and hopefully we will start out home campaign with a win,” said 41-year-old Rusedski whose career-high ATP rankings was four.
While the Raipur Rangers has former French Open Champion Thomas Muster, Punjab Marshalls also has world number 47 Marcos Baghdatis. Leading the women’s category are world number 15 Elena Svitolina from Ukraine with world number 171 Myneni leading the charge for the Indian players in the Punjab team. Myneni, who achieved his career-high ranking of 166 earlier this year, partnered with Baghdatis in the fourth match of the tie against Mumbai Tennis Masters on Tuesday and won the match against the duo of Santiago Giraldo and Sriram Balaji.
The youngster believes that he has learnt a lot from players like Baghdatis. “For me, I get to see how they train from close quarters. As a part of the team, it’s good to inculcate small things like they do. Marcos and Greg have performed well at the top level. We had a session about serves with Greg and Marcos and it meant a lot. I am currently ranked outside the top 150 in the world but Greg and Marcos have been talking about myself breaking into the top-100 in the world. And playing with them for a fortnight will surely make a difference to my game,” said Myneni, who is ranked 112th in the world doubles rankings.
With the league seeing the teams playing 13 matches in two weeks, the teams have got some rest days and the players are also making an effort to see India and understand Indian culture. If Baghdatis is impressed with the facilities at Hyderabad, Ukrainian Elena plans to travel to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. “I have great memories from India. Three years ago, I won my first WTA title and it was an amazing experience for me. Playing here always brings back those memories. Playing in the first match of the league against US Open champion Panetta was a close match. The team has been training well. The food has been fantastic and we have been trying a lot of curries in the last one week. I have not seen Taj Mahal, but it is one of the places on my travel list,” said the 21-year-old player.
Free tickets
Punjab Marshalls would give free tickets to people for the team’s two matches at CLTA. Marshall will face Raipur Rangers on Friday and Mumbai Tennis Masters on Saturday. Interested fans can get tickets by showing their identity proof at the ticket counter of the CLTA Stadium, Sector 10.
