Indian aces train to make killing on court

Stretching his arms out in his customary rifle position,Mahesh Bhupathi tossed the fuzzy practice ball into the air,before his right arm completed a perfect serve motion.

Stretching his arms out in his customary rifle position,Mahesh Bhupathi tossed the fuzzy practice ball into the air,before his right arm completed a perfect serve motion. While the tennis ball kissed the junction of the T on the other side of the net,an entire battalion of winged insects plopped to the surface during his follow-through,sliced and massacred by the strings on his racquet.

Not long after Indias victorious Davis Cup side finally arrived at the RK Khanna Tennis Complex,Bhupathi,Somdev Devvarman,and Rohan Bopanna faced what would be their most potent opposition in the Commonwealth Games,faceless-nameless-flying machines. Soon after the sun set behind Africa Avenue,the powerful flood-lamps fitted on the stadias Centre Court attracted the bugs and the bees in countless hordes. Wave after wave,they showered down on the practicing Indians,causing Bopanna more problems than his volleys.

By the end of the three hour hitting session,the shining blue rebound surface resembled an exoskeletal burial ground. Dragonflies,moths,wasps and eye flies left behind little maps of destruction,but not before taking the fight to the trio.

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Bhupathi swatted,whipped and meshed out with his racquet in between rallies that is while Bopanna belched,cursed and spat the winged army out in numbers. Theyre breeding in the air, Devvarman screamed,before punishing the tennis ball with a clinically executed down-the-line forehand winner. Apart from the airborne vermin,there wasnt much that bothered the cheerful Indian contingent,just like their respective draws to the medal rounds.

Following a rigorous hardcourt season,a successful play-off in the Davis Cup,and all the big name pull-outs prior to the Delhi Games,even the staunchest of critics have conceded that a bagful of medals awaits the Indian tennis players in all five disciplines mens and womens singles,mens and womens doubles and mixed doubles. Devvarman tops the mens singles list,while he and Bopanna are perched second in the doubles draw,only behind the combination of Leander Paes (who reaches Delhi on Sunday) and Bhupathi. Despite her awful recent form,Sania Mirza is also seeded second in the womens section.

While most believe that all they have to do is to make sure they show up on court,the Indians churned out the cliches when it came to calling a spade a spade.

We cant take it (medals) for granted… you never know in tennis… it all depends on the match, said Bhupathi,while Devvarman claimed that his first round opponent,Devin Mullings of Bahamas (with a career high ranking of 886) beat him seven years back. But despite the microphone induced phrases,the players body language on court said it all.

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Bhupathi tried his hand at singles covering corners of the court he never knew existed while Bopanna gave his mixed doubles partner Nirupama Sanjeev (formerly Vaidyanathan) a more serious one-on-one session. The group called it a day when even sighting the ball both in the air and on the ground became difficult,as the winged bugs finally pulled off a well-earned victory. One of the few that non-Indians are favoured to win during the course of the next 10 days.