Anand Amritraj

His maternal grandfather had a dream-to see one of his children or grandchildren play at Wimbledon just once! Tennis star Anand Amritraj marked his fortieth year at Wimbledon last year. Along with younger brother Vijay, he played 17 years of doubles, and their team was among the top five in the world. He also played 11 years of singles on the ATP circuit, a long innings quite unheard of in today’s era.

In an exclusive interview for Kavita Chhibber, Anand Amritraj shares memories of his tennis journey and much more with Kavita Chhibber.

So like they show in Bollywood movies, were you, being the eldest of three brothers told –“Son you “have” to be the tennis torch bearer of our family and get to Wimbledon!”

(Laughter) No, it wasn’t as much that but to all Indians and the commonwealth in general Wimbledon is the ultimate tournament, growing up. It was my grandfather’s wish that one of his children or grand kids should play at Wimbledon once. Getting into tennis in the early sixties-and I really started playing when I was ten, it was not even something we ever thought about. It was so far removed that the idea was just to have fun, try and compete a little bit in the tournaments in and around Chennai and go from there.

We used to listen to the commentary on the Wimbledon finals on the radio. I remember very vividly in 1963 when were all sitting around our little radio in our home in Madras and listened to the Wimbledon final between Chuck McKinley and Fred Stolle. So we just wanted to have fun and play but our coach didn’t really make it fun for us. Instead you practiced your swing, backhand, forehand and it was a year before I could even hit the ball. He didn’t go out of his way to make it fun like they do these days and it was a very strict regimen of how you practiced and developed your strokes, so Wimbledon was the farthest from my mind.

Unfortunately my grandfather was no longer alive when I played at Wimbledon in 1967. I was 15, and that was the first time I went abroad, the first time I went to Wimbledon and the first time to Europe along with the Indian Junior team. They had a men’s team and a junior team. The junior team was usually 3 boys with a manager. I should have been picked in 1966 when I won the national juniors. I was the youngest ever champion in the Boys under 18, and won at 13 years and 9 months. It had never been done before and I was a complete outsider. They didn’t put me in the team, even though I won the nationals and I played well in the trials. I got left out of the team and three other boys were sent and I was crushed. So I had to come back and win the junior nationals again the next year and then I was selected and sent to Europe along with two other boys and a manager.

So that was my first time at Wimbledon. They put us at a YMCA in Stockwell in South east London and I was scared, alone and nervous. I was 15 and I’d never been away and I didn’t play particularly well in Wimbledon that year, but I made up for it 2 years later when I made it to the semi final of the Junior event and lost to John Alexander. I was quite happy with the way I played then, but in the first year I was just very excited to be there, very nervous and quite green to say the least.

The courts were not the issue because when I had won the two Junior nationals in Delhi-they were both on grass, so I was quite used to playing on grass. The problem was being at Wimbledon the very first time, being overwhelmed by the surroundings and I had these new pair of shoes given to me by Fred Perry’s in London that were twice as heavy as the little Bata canvas shoes that we used to wear. So I felt like I had five pound weights on my feet and couldn’t move at all.

I wore them new for the match-that’s how green I was. I should have worn them a few days earlier and would have been okay but dumb as I was I wore them on the day of the match-my white new clothes and my white new shoes. I couldn’t lift my feet and run. I played against a guy from Holland. He would’ve still beaten me-he was unbelievable but I lost 6-1 6-2 or something like that. I could have given him a fight, but didn’t because I couldn’t move around the court. It was partly nervousness and partly wearing those shoes that were way too heavy for me. That taught me a lesson for a life time. When I go for a tournament today I try on my shoes first and see how I like them!

Indian were perceived as these people from the land of snake charmers who played on tennis courts made of cowdung… what was your experience?

It’s the same even today- the cow dung routine and a lot of players on the circuit seem to find it really funny but growing up in Madras I didn’t even know what the courts were made of. I thought they were regular sand courts made with some clay so they were called clay courts and they still are. No one knew they were topped by cow dung and people in the States ask you-does it smell? Of course it doesn’t smell. In my opinion, it’s the best court you can learn tennis on. First of all it is fast enough so you can serve and volley. Its a slow enough court where you can stay back and rally and it plays like a clay court with sand on it so you can slide around which gives you a good balance and every body who has played on those courts-Vijay, me, Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh, every one who grew up in Madras, they have become all surface players thanks to these clay courts. When you see all these American kids play on clay in Paris they look so klutzy. They are all used to playing on hard courts here..and they go to France and play on the slow courts and they look so awkward and clumsy, its not even funny. It’s the same story with my son-he has grown up here in LA and when he goes to play on the clay courts, he certainly doesn’t move like a ballerina, whereas when I go back to Chennai and go back to playing, it takes me half an hour before I’m back to sliding around into my ground strokes like I grew up doing and can easily get back into it.

How has Wimbledon changed over the years?

Firstly the courts have changed in that they have used a different type of grass, I hear since the past 16 years. Even though it is cut to the same length as its always been, it has slowed down the game intentionally. They didn’t have that many serve and volley players as they did in ‘67 or even ‘77-so its much slower. Secondly they used the same Slazenger balls that they used in ‘67 but now they open the balls a week before and use them when needed. As a result the balls are much softer and heavier and that slows down the game. That is also intentional because they don’t want to see all those 150 mph serves. They still have them but only really big servers serve at that pace.

The rackets now in vogue are another big change that has taken place. They went from wood with which we played, to steel. Then it went to aluminum and to this composite material that they have now. Jack Kramer who played before us in the 40s-his racket weighed about 16 ounces, ours weighed about 12-13 ounces and now the new ones weigh about 8 or 9 ounces. Its unbelievable.

Wimbledon itself –they have done a lot of modernizing. They have this millennium building which is superb. It was built in 2000 and is a magnificent structure. They have taken out the number 1 court where Vijay and I have played several exciting matches including when we were in the semis of Wimbledon doubles in 1976 and lost 19-17 in the fifth set to Brian Gottfried and Raul Ramirez. John Alexander(the Aussie who beat Anand in the Juniors and is a good friend) bought the court and he put it in his house in Australia. I thought that was an interesting story. The whole thing has now become the Millennium building and houses the players’ restaurant, the players lounge. It has a members’ enclosure there and a magnificent balcony that looks into courts 2 and 3 and you can have a panoramic view of all the way to court 13 and the marquee and the St Mary’s Church in Wimbledon.

What have been your most memorable matches?

I’d say when we beat Bob Hewitt and Frank McMillan at the center court when they were the number 1 team in the world. That was huge. We lost to Gottfried and Ramirez in a 5 ½ hour marathon. We also had a very close match against John McEnroe and Peter Fleming. We have been in the semis twice but unfortunately ran into the top teams of that time. Of course winning the Masters event in the doubles over the Gullickson twins in 89 and then again in 2000 was great.

One of my most memorable matches was in 1971. That was the first year I went and played in the men’s singles at Wimbledon. You had to play three qualifying matches and win all three to make it to the main draw. So, you had to play the best of 5 sets in singles, followed by best of five sets in the doubles and best of three sets in the mixed doubles if you played there. So 13 sets in one day and so you were on court from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. in the evening. There were no ball boys and no chairs to sit on when you were changing ends and –it rained half the time. It was an endurance test. Luckily that year-I was 19-I got through the singes and mixed doubles qualifying, Vijay and I lost in the third round of the doubles qualifying, so that had to be one of my most memorable weeks at Wimbledon. I was on the singles tour from 1971 till 1982, and 6 more years of doubles. Who plays for 17-18 years now? Its unheard of. If you play 5 or 6 years that is more than enough.

I think I want to mention here that outside of Wimbledon, the most memorable wins were in those two years when we reached the finals of the Davis Cup. The first time we beat Japan, Australia and then Russia in Rome to get to the finals where we had to default to South Africa due to no fault of our own. The most disappointing thing about that default was the fact that normally the winner and the runner up team gets a replica of the Davis Cup and we didn’t get it because we had defaulted.

Thirteen years later, at the fag end of our careers in 87 when managed to do it again. We had Ramesh(Krishnan) in the team also at that time. We beat Australia in Sydney which was huge, we beat Argentina in Delhi and then we went to Sweden to play the finals there. We had no chance there because they laid down a special clay court for us! They knew we couldn’t play on clay. We had played them in Bangalore the year before and the matches had been very close. Vijay lost in 5 sets to Anders Jarryd, Ramesh also lost in a very tight match. We lost a 5 ½ hours doubles match to Stefan Edberg and Jarryd. So they knew if they play on any other court than clay, it would be really tough.

So in two weeks they put down a magnificent clay court which suited them perfectly and us not at all! We went out there and couldn’t believe that anyone could make a clay court in two weeks but they did. Stefan Edberg who was the Wimbledon champion was put on the bench. They wouldn’t let him play! They put all their clay court specialists against us. The matches began at 10 o’ clock in the morning and were supposed to go on till 6 in the evening. But by 1 o’ clock the matches were over and we came back to the hotel in time for lunch. Funnily enough we had some Indian friends who had flown from London with Indian food to see the finals and every night we would have the Indian food. They had a nice room but no refrigerator so they opened the window and put the food out as the temperature was freezing and didn’t need a refrigerator. Vijay and I often say we had a very good time-except for the tennis! But the good thing was that having got to the finals in 87, at least we came back with our Davis Cup trophy and it occupies a place of pride in my house.

Who are the players you have enjoyed watching over the years at Wimbledon?

First would be my all time favorite Rod Laver – he would be my number 1 among all the guys as a player, as a person and as an ambassador for tennis. He was the greatest followed by Ken Rosewall another Australian who was also his compatriot and rival. They were slightly older but they were always someone to look up to, not only because they were two of the greatest players of all times-Laver won eleven grand slams, Rosewall won eight, but also in terms of their personalities being perfect for the sport, and for carrying themselves exceptionally well. Rosewall never won Wimbledon by the way.

Then of course in the modern generation Andre Agassi-he would be among my favorites to watch and also for the way he carried himself and I’m glad that he won the one Wimbledon that he did win. Sampras was a great player though not one of my favorites to watch, even though he won Wimbledon many times. And then of course now Federer-one of my all time favorites to watch. There are players like Nadal and Djokovic close on his heels. He was very lucky to have scraped past Nadal last year but had said himself that Nadal might take it away from him this year and he did. Another favorite of mine was Goran Ivansevic, Peter Rafter was another one.

What about the famous trio – Borg, McEnroe and Connors?

Borg is a great guy. He’s gotten much more entertaining, much more talkative over the years. He used to be completely silent. He came to play a couple of our legend events in India and he was really great. I saw him again at Wimbledon and he was Mr. Personality which he never used to be I have high regard for Bjorn-he is the greatest clay court player in the world, except for maybe Nadal.

McEnroe-I never really had much to do with him. After the one time that I beat him in New port we never got along particularly well because it was more like fire and fire. Also we did commentary for the BBC at the same time a couple of years ago-once again he had some comments about me and of course I let him have it when I saw him in the US Open locker room later on. He had some comments about my hair so I said-John at least I have my hair –you don’t .

Jimmy- actually believe it or not, has mellowed down after his coaching stint with Roddick. I never thought he’d last this long because I’ve never heard of a world no 1 player someone as famous as Connors playing second fiddle to his pupil. It is very hard to do-most players can’t do it but Connors apparently has done very well. When you see him at tournaments these days you hardly know he is there though in the old days he really made his presence felt. Now when you see him slinking around picking balls for Roddick to hit he looks like any other coach. You wouldn’t think he is the same guy who was strutting around 20 years ago. It’s the same thing I saw with Michael Chang at Wimbledon this year. I didn’t know who he was and what he was doing there. He was just slinking around the All England Club. I said I know this guy from somewhere before and didn’t realize it was Chang- but Connors has done a great job with Roddick.

Your son Stephen and your nephew Prakash have told me they envy Vijay and you the times when you played tennis, because not only were there some greats who played during that time, the competition was not as tough as it is now. I don’t see the same names in the men’s top 20 two weeks in a row at times, these days.

Tennis is more competitive now in that the depth of the ATP tour is much more. When we played tennis in the 70s and the 80s, the total ATP rankings consisted of 500-600 players-now its 1500-1600 players-three times the number of players looking for the same top 100 spots. To make way you need to go through so many good players and that is not including the college players, and some of the European clay court players who don’t play much on the ATP tours and every month there are 10, 20 or 30 players who are coming in to the picture so the depth is unbelievable and you’ve got to be seriously talented and unbelievably single minded to make it now. In our days it was obviously easier though the top 10 guys were easily as good as the guys now. If you give them the racket and the same equipment they will be as good and in some cases even better-Federer and Nadal aside, The Andy Mayers and the Nikolai Davydenkos of the world-I wouldn’t give them a chance over Newcombe or Tony Roche or some other players of our era.

I think the longevity is not there anymore.

Why are there so many injuries on the tour these days compared to when you were playing?

That’s a very good question. My son Stephen has had two knee surgeries already-one in 2002 and one in 2005-both knees. So whatever anybody says that limits his movements. Its like having a knee replacement and Prakash has had all kinds of injuries and that’s just talking about my son and my nephew. You’ll see injuries left right and center. Its amazing to me. People say oh its a very long year and a very long schedule. I don’t think so. We played a much longer schedule-also there were no tie breakers in the 5th set in those days and most of the matches were best of 5 sets. It seems amazing to me that these kids get injured as often as they do.

The guys that don’t seem to get injured are the top guys-Federer-Nadal not that much and these are the guys who seem to play the most. Its kind of baffling. The only thing I can think of is that when we played in the 70s and the 80s three of the four grand slams were on grass. Now only Wimbledon is on grass and grass courts have almost faded out. A lot of tournaments are on hard courts and on cement courts which is very hard on the body. That is the only thing that I can think of, other than the fact that some of them may be over training.

What are Federer and Nadal doing differently?

I don’t know. Federer is not even as bulked up as Nadal. He is 6 foot 1 about 175 pounds. That is pretty similar to me and when he takes his shirt off he is not that massively built. We were even talking about Nikolai Davydenko, the Russian guy. He is 5.9, 155 pounds but he hits the ball very hard. That’s the greatest thing about tennis. Its all about timing. Rosewall was 5.6 and 140 pounds and he could hit the ball just as big as anyone else.

I don’t know Federer’s training regimen but he travels with a trainer. I think in Federer’s case the number of matches he plays week in and week out, he doesn’t need to practice that much and in his case its also all natural, god given talent. He doesn’t need to go out and hit a thousand backhands in a row.

What are your thoughts on the occasional hushed whispers that go on about steroid use in tennis on the circuit?

We have very regular and random testing and so far its only been the Argentineans who’ve had a problem with this. So either they are picking on the Argentineans or there is something wrong with their water. And all of them say they didn’t know how it happened-the standard excuse. So only some of the Argentineans have been banned for varied periods of time-nobody else has. I’m sure it goes on but I’m not aware of anyone else being caught with it. I’m also sure it’s not as prevalent as it would be in football, baseball or track but I’m positive that a little bit of it is going on.

When you look back are there any regrets? One often heard about Indians lacking the killers’ instinct, something that was said a lot about Vijay.

When you look back you always say oh I wish I had worked a little bit harder. We won Wimbledon twice in the Masters but we would have liked to have won at least one title in the doubles or if Vijay looks back I’m sure he’ll think that he could have done better in the singles.

We are talking of an era where there were 10 great doubles teams but it was quite doable and with a few breaks we could’ve won because we beat all these teams but didn’t do it consistently at Wimbledon and that is a regret. I think we definitely could have won 1 or 2 titles, since we won 25 other tournaments beating the same teams all over the world that we lost to, in the big ones which is a shame.

Secondly, in the singles I was always ranked between the 50 and the 80s and Vijay and I were in the top 5 doubles team. I’m sure with a little bit of hard work I could have gone up 20 places in the singles. Looking back now I think I should have trained 5 hours a day instead of 3 hours a day.

Killers’ instinct-I think it’s something the media made up. I would say the only thing we were lacking was being in the best physical shape we could possibly have been compared to what I see now; I tell you all these guys are in unbelievable shape.

I do pretty much the same things today that I did then. I still run 3 miles as I did then and I realize now that that was not enough. I should have done more weight training, got a trainer and done things in a more scientific way. The guys who were very fit then, were on top of the game and did exceptionally well.

So I think we could have been a lot fitter. No question about it. Whatever fitness we had was all natural along with a little bit of running, and some skipping that we used to do in India and that was it- and then we played tennis. Now there is a lot of focus on upper body training which we never did. Talent wise of course it is what you get and no more.

But it’s been a great life and if only my grandfather could have seen this-forty times at Wimbledon and not just once.