When a seven-year-old Siddharth Vishwakarma picked up a tennis racquet and started swinging it at Varanasi’s Prabhu Narayan Union Club, little would he have imagined that he would play for the country in the Davis Cup one day.
Playing alongside Vishwakarma, who is likely to make his debut in the marquee event, will be Ramkumar Ramanathan, N. Sriram Balaji, Niki Poonacha and Manas Dhamne. Teen Aryan Shah has been named in the reserves in the squad to be helmed by Ashutosh Singh, who has succeeded Zeeshan Ali as coach.
Sumit Nagal pulled out of the tie against Sweden in Stockholm (Sept. 14 & 15) with a back injury after being named in the original list. The 16-year-old Dhamne has taken his spot.
India had defeated Pakistan 4-0 in February to seal its place in the World Group I stage competition. With Ramkumar and Sriram Balaji the usual doubles picks and Poonacha the third option, Vishwakarma’s chances of getting fielded in singles have brightened.
The 29-year-old was ecstatic on receiving the news of his Davis Cup selection from coach Ratan Sharma. “I was training on the court when I got to know about it. I was happy I got the thing I was working hard for,” Vishwakarma told Sportstar over phone.
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For his love and passion for the sport, he credits two people: Rajesh Mishra, his uncle who introduced it to his nephew who used to often fall ill as a child, and Ratan, his coach and “godfather”.
Ratan, who has been coaching since 1992, currently heads the Noida-based Winners Tennis Academy - Vishwakarma’s training base now. “The amount of spin he generated was amazing... and it was remarkable the way he hit the ball, both heavy and with speed. I knew he was special,” gushed Ratan, recalling his first rendezvous with the teenager in Lucknow.
Though Vishwakarma has been playing for more than two decades, it hasn’t been without a break. In 2018, the left-hander left the game and took to coaching to make ends meet. “My morale was down. I used to request people to sponsor my tennis... they would agree but never deliver. It was Ratan sir who told me to start playing again and focus on my game. He has borne my tournament and training expenses till now,” revealed Vishwakarma.
The reigning National champion, who clinched his maiden title at the Fenesta championship in 2018, explained that there were quite a few good players in his hometown who could not overcome the obstacles and stopped growing.
“I’ve seen players who had the potential to do well at the international level but had no exposure. We all come from humble families and tennis is an expensive sport. Varanasi is a small city, a tourist spot known for its temples. Sports is not big there.
“My father would take me on a cycle and travel 15 kilometres just for practice... a isi condition thi (such was our condition),” he added.
The ITF Thailand F1, F2, and F3 were the first set of tournaments he played on foreign soil, in the June of 2017. Even this was possible only due to the efforts of his uncle and Vikram Singh Sisodia, the Chhattisgarh State Tennis Association president. Vishwakarma was based in Raipur then.
Siddharth Vishwakarma and his coach Ratan Sharma, who he dubs his “godfather”. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In 2022, Vishwakarma’s sabbatical ended after Ratan’s intervention. “I sat down with him and told him ‘Whatever is in my hands, I will do it. You just play tournaments. You still have time. There are still three to five years in you’”, Ratan said.
In May, Vishwakarma reached the final of the ITF Addis Ababa tournament in Ethiopia but lost to South Africa’s Philip Henning. His standout performance in the competition came in the semifinal when he knocked out Benjamin Lock, ranked 353rd at that time (Lock has now climbed to 164th in the world).
“In Ethiopia, I was having breathing issues because of the high altitude, but winning somehow. In the final, I tried my best but couldn’t cross the finish line. I should have won that one,” said the Indian, ranked 590th in the world.
After the Ethiopia sojourn, Vishwakarma opted to play in a couple of M15 competitions in Kazakhstan. However, the cooler climes after the scorching 50-plus degrees back home meant that he couldn’t cope. He also had to survive on just pizzas due to limited vegetarian options, forcing him to retreat.
India’s Davis Cup match will be staged at the Kungliga tennishallen, an indoor stadium. Vishwakarma sounded confident that this will work in his favour. Stockholm stands at an altitude of 28m compared to Addis Ababa’s 2355m, making him breathe easy.
Vishwakarma would have fancied travelling with Nagal to Sweden as both have faced each other multiple times in the Indian circuit. Nagal, the country’s No. 1, has had a meteoric rise in the ATP rankings (73 now), thanks to regular tournament play and back-to-back wins against higher-seeded opponents. While Nagal has had the means to enter many tournaments, Vishwakarma has lacked them.
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“The other players compete for 35-38 weeks in a year while I barely get 15. If I have the opportunity to play more matches, I could also get closer to the top 200, even 150, and get a shot at the Grand Slams,” he said.
What struck Vishwakarma when he faced Nagal was the entourage the latter had; in sharp contrast, he himself had to travel alone in the sleeper berth of a train and shake off the blues before stepping on the court for business.
“In his initial years, he had the backing of Mahesh Bhupathi and most of his training was abroad,” said Vishwakarma of Nagal, who had joined Bhupathi’s ‘Mission 2018’ - Apollo Tyres’ initiative to scout for India’s first singles Grand Slam champion. Nagal had a solid base when he trained at Bhupathi’s academy for a couple of years.
About his own route, Vishwakarma said: “The main thing is to play more matches which I don’t get. If only I get a solid pathway...”
Ratan felt that taking it one year at a time would be the way to go for the Varanasi native. “The moment you take your ranking up, things become easy. Our aim was to play in a Grand Slam first but we got a Davis Cup call... things are looking up,” said Ratan.
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