Manas Dhamne is thrilled to be training with one of the leading coaches of the world, Riccardo Piatti, in Italy. But he is disappointed that he has to withdraw from the Indian team for the Asia Oceania World Junior tennis event scheduled in Kazakhstan in June.
“Manas felt sad as the Kazakh travel did not work out. He was very keen to play,” said Manoj Dhamne, father of Manas.
After training for a week last year with Piatti, who has coached Novak Djokovic, Ivan Ljubicic, Richard Gasquet and Milos Raonic among others, Manas had to wait for long to return to Italy owing to the pandemic.
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Srinivasan Vasudevan, a member of the Indian team that reached the Davis Cup final in 1987, helped Manas to get to Switzerland, train for a week, play an ITF junior tournament and then move to the Piatti base.
“He has a great potential to become a world class player. He beat an 18-year old in the ITF junior event in Sierre. It proves that he can play matches and adapt to conditions. He is for sure in great hands with Piatti. I really hope that he will turn out to be a champion player,” said Vasudevan when contacted at his base in Switzerland.
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Manas also impressed people at the Swiss Tennis Academy in Biel.
“Manas is a very dedicated boy. He always tries to do his best. He listens carefully and brings it on the pitch. He hits the ball very clean. He can also accelerate the ball well. He is already very big for a 13-year-old,” said Peter Frey of the Swiss Tennis Academy, which has “world class fitness trainers’’.
Manas did use many months of waiting time to compete in the ITF junior tournaments in India, apart from finishing runner-up in the National under-18 championship.
The high standards of physical fitness, demanded by tennis in Europe, will take some time for Manas to acquire.
After Manas won the under-12 singles title and finished runner-up in doubles in the Eddie Herr championship in Florida in 2019, the International Management Group (IMG) extended support to help him train in Europe.
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