Bunking classes for Leander

November 4: This is not going to please Anisa. Four young ladies bunked their post-lunch college classes to see Leander Paes in action. But...

November 4: This is not going to please Anisa. Four young ladies bunked their post-lunch college classes to see Leander Paes in action. But they mixed-up the timings of the matches and landed up for the India A match. Not wishing to bunk classes for Vasu and his band, they went back to college. Only to return an hour later to see their “knight with a tennis racket” Paes. When the man came out for his match, they promptly parked themselves in the stands bang opposite Paes and zoomed in on him with a pair of binoculars. Did they see any tennis? Dunno that one.

Mahajan in India

The All India Tennis Association invited Raghbir Singh Mahajan, their representative in London, for the Asia Cup. Mahajan has been officiating at Wimbledon for the last 23 years.

Born in Africa, with roots in Rawalpindi and based in London for the past 25 years, Mahajan has travelled far. Mahajan is not one of those “qualified” umpires, for when he started out at Wimbledon, the ITF exams were non-existent. At the Championships, he has seen the best at their best — Borg, McEnroe, Connors, Becker… And he’s going to see them again in December when he takes his place on the high chair for the seniors tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

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Officiating apart, he has also played mixed doubles with former India No 1 Nirupana Mankad in Kenya. Now he runs a 12-court tennis centre in London alongwith his son.

All dressed up

The Delhi tennis Association has done well to rope in sponsors in short a time and not just that, but also sell a few stalls in addition. The gentlemen manning those stalls are all dressed up but seem to have no one to give their sales pitch to. That’s the plight of some of those who have bought stalls for Rs 10,000 each. Two days and no buyers yet, informed one.But if Anil Khanna, the DTA secretary, is to be believed, things will change in the next day or two. He is determined to have the stands full for the final. Also, on Friday and Saturday, 360 kids will be playing at an inter-school tournament.

From Uzbek with love

While the crowds stuck to the Centre court featuring India’s matches, the courtside seats where the Uzbeks were playing, had Ambassador Ilhom Nematov and his wife in attendance.

Even as the Uzbeks were cruising along against Philippines, Nematov was worrying himself sick about the match tomorrow against India. When somebody told him that Leander and Mahesh were ranked World No 6 — No 4 till a few days back — in doubles, a dejected Nematov just crossed his heart and looked into the sky for divine help.