With competitive sport in limbo, it's an opportunity for those in charge to rethink how their sports could change. This series looks at some of the most popular sports in India and speaks to stakeholders - players, administrators, former players, fans - on what change they wish to see in their sport (and also what they would not change). We started with Abhinav Bindra, India's only solo gold medallist at the Olympics, for an overview of why sport in general needs to change, before moving on to hockey. We then looked at the way forward for shooting, as well as boxing. Today, we look at tennis.
Prajnesh Gunnasweran, men's singles player
In India, a strong tennis coaching structure is missing. What we have now is certainly not good enough to produce top-100 players.
We need to bring in foreign coaches who have produced players at the highest level, have them stay in the country for a certain number of years and have them work with our coaches. It's the only way we can learn and work towards building quality training methods.
At the end of day, what you're taught is how far you go. If you look at most of our players who've made it, a majority of them have trained outside India, either they've come through the college system abroad or academies in Europe. But it's a very small number who've been able to play and sustain themselves outside the country.
A much higher percentage of Indian players will have a chance at transitioning into top-level players if they have access to quality coaching within the country. We need to contract foreign coaches for a moderately long period. Short stints would only turn out to be superficial without any actual knowledge transfer. Once our coaches have trained under these foreign experts, say for a 10-year period and understood what goes into the making of a top professional - right from being a u-12 talent to a top-50, top-100 player, that's when they'll be ready to take complete charge.
Ankita Raina, women's singles player
I would definitely wish for a better, more equitable prize money distribution system. At the moment, the difference is huge. A player ranked 500 in the world barely makes Rs 15,000-20,000 a week, whereas someone ranked No 80 in the world makes ten times that money. A player who made the first round of the main draw at the Australian Open this year took home AUD 75,000 while the title winner's check was AUD 4.1 million. It's a telling example of the gulf in pay.
To make the changes, this issue can be brought forward to the players' council at ATP, WTA & ITF. With tennis effectively run by seven different organisations (including the four Grand Slam tournaments' bodies), it is of course going to be a challenge to get all the governing bodies to come together and agree on this.
Zeeshan Ali, coach, Indian Davis Cup team
This pandemic has been a reality check on the lack of a support system for the sport in the country. Beyond the top few players, if you look at coaches, academies and the various stakeholders, most of them are struggling to survive through these months of no-sport.
The government and the national federation need to take lessons from this phase and start working towards setting up maybe a contingency fund that can come to the aid of people who are involved in the sport in various capacities during such difficult periods. It will only get a leg-up if corporates too jump in with assistance.
Out of the 10 coaches in my academy, for instance, around seven are away in their hometowns and after three months of practically zero revenue, I'm not in a position to pay their salaries anymore. So many coaches are suddenly out of work. Many are taking up jobs in supermarkets or whatever else comes their way, so as to not go to bed hungry. Sport, even at its very base, needs coaches to grow and sustain and we have to be able to offer all these members in the sporting ecosystem a safety net in times like these.
Sunder Iyer, secretary general, Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association
The local tennis circuit should be empowered. It's the surest way to have more number of players looking at a professional career in the sport.
Right now, our pool of professional players is small and only a handful are able to make a living out of the sport. The idea should be to strengthen the local circuit so that players can earn from it and fund their international tournament participation. Presently, because we don't have enough tournaments in India, players are forced to head to Europe straightaway. A large majority of players don't have the economic means to do so. A strong local circuit will be able to provide subsistence to Indian players that will in turn lower the financial strain involved in traveling and competing abroad.
Nikki Poonacha, member, ITF player panel
What India needs is more number of ITF, ATP and WTA tournaments. It could be a crucial driver to the sport's growth.
The first step to go about doing this would be to create awareness. The national federation should conduct small camps in different cities, approach individuals and corporate sponsors. The ITF is keen on tennis resuming widely across more countries and during our previous meeting, mentioned that they are ready to step in and help national bodies conduct local prize money tournaments. The idea is to offer players a chance to compete and earn some money. Australia has already started with UTR tournaments, of course they also have the funds for it. In India, the pandemic situation needs to improve before we can begin tournaments.