Last night, I unexpectedly ended up at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, where I watched Andy Roddick struggle early on and then barely defeat Argentina’s Eduardo Schwank (my tennis-obsessed date dismissively characterized it as “outlasting him”). I wasn’t that interested in watching Mandy Moore’s ex- swing, but the next match had me sitting up straight and paying rapt attention– and not just because I was suddenly court-side.
UVA’s beloved Somdev Devvarman, the reigning NCAA men’s champ (two years running!), played someone else and he did it so well, I don’t even remember who his opponent was. He was fierce, unrelenting…just a gritty player. It was mesmerizing to watch (and quite a thrill to out-shout the punk behind us, who was hating on our boy). Suddenly, for the first time in over a decade, I was interested in tennis again.
Behold, shady background info from wikipedia (I’m late for the match!):
Somdev Devvarman (also known as Somdev Dev Varman) is the reigning and two-time NCAA Men’s Singles Champion. As a recent graduate out of the University of Virginia who hails from India, Somdev is best known for having captured the 2007 NCAA Singles Championship by defeating Georgia Bulldogs senior John Isner in the final. In one of the most dramatic finals in the 123-year history of the tournament, Devvarman scored a 7–6 (7), 4–6, 7–6 (2) win over the tournament’s No. 1 seed. A year later, he defeated Tennessee’s J.P. Smith 6-3, 6-2 to take home his second consecutive NCAA Singles National Championship. It was his historic third consecutive appearance in the NCAA singles final.
Devvarman, the son of Ranjana and Pravanjan Dev Varman, was born February 13, 1985 in Assam, India. He has an older sister, Paulami, and older brother, Aratrik. The Dev Varmans originally hail from the north-eastern Indian state of Tripura. Devvarman picked up the racquet as a nine-year-old in Chennai in 1994 and after learning the basics he made it to the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy in 2000. [viki]
The video I embedded above will fill you in quickly– cheesy shots of him moving around like it’s a Sesame Street stop-animation-skit aside– about Somdev. He’s humble, cheerful and adorable. We likey. In fact, we likey so much, we may be live-micro-blogging it, via Twitter. If we can tear our eyes away from watching him play, that is…
Great post. Somdev looks awesome. He should be playing for India in Beijing.
WOW, he seems good. Hopefully, he will make it big and play for India, a replacement for Leander Paes? Even though he is Assamese, we south Indians should claim him (According to Wiki, his nick name is Buji, thats soo south Indian) 🙂
Very interesting international and inter-racial story. A talented indian citizen from Assam who looks Indonesian is hunted down by a white american coach looking for glory for his school’s tennis program; has an african-american music star as his primary backer; and in short order becomes the dominant college tennis player in America. Its worth pointing out that Indonesians and other southeast asians are very good at racket sports, second only to the chinese. With Table Tennis and Badminton almost completely dominated by east and southeast asians I predict that its only a matter of time before they start dominating Tennis as well. A chinese girl just defeated one of the powerful Wiliams sisters in the Olympics, and Somdev could be a harbinger of things to come in the men’s side.
BTW, India’s best football player, and captain of its team, Baichung Bhutia, is also from northeast India.
I so needed to see a Desi tennis player who has some clout. I was just in NY and visited the Hindu temples in Flushing. While I was not cirumambulating the Ganesh or performing aarti to shirdi sai baba, I was thinking about suggesting them to augment the classes that are available to youth, that the mandir arranges and subsidizes. Since many parents probably lack much game in any sport, there needs to be some conduit where young kids can get exposed to competetive sports. This will make Desi youth better rounded and allow them to develop. I hate the stigma of the Desi IT guy and want to see boys, and girls develop so that they can survive in the business, legal, finance world. Competetive sports is one way to gain character development and which I think is what I am trying to encourage developing here.
Pankaj
Wow, when was the last time someone said of an Indian tennis player, “He’s got world class speed” and “his footwork and speed are … the best in the country”? If Ramesh Krishnan had such athleticism, he would have won a Wimbledon title.
That’s all we want, Somdev, one Wimbledon title! 🙂
I’ve been following Somdev’s college and pro career very closely. I’ve also met him a couple of times, and he’s a fun guy..very relaxed. He destroyed his opponents in college, and has had a dream start at the pro level. A meteoric rise in raking, in just over 6 weeks has taken him from 800 to around 240. He’s slated to represent India in the Davis Cup tie against Romania next month.
Btw..UVa has another Indian player on its roster – Sanam Singh, who just won a tournament today.
Forgot to thank anna for the nice post. 🙂
Its interesting how somdev can switch effortlessly between the american and indian english accents. I talked to him (chance encounter on public transport) a year back and there was no trace of an american accent. In the video (probably made earlier) his accent and inflection is mostly american. He is very humble in person and at that time wasn’t sure of being drafted in the davis cup team. Seems like that he could be the desi version of michael chang. if ramesh or ramanathan krishnan were even close to this guy’s athleticism they would have ruled tennis (for those who dont know, they were like the worst ever athletes to play the game at a high level).
Awesome!
8 · sn said
aside from men’s doubles, there’s really never been a dominant desi tennis story (both Paes and Bupathi have the touch and control, but not the big service game or return…or freakish athleticism) but Somdev (pasting a 6’9″ John Isner along the way–who went to Wimbledon) seems to have the athleticism as well. I hope he makes boatloads of cash at the pro level to compensate for the years spent in cville.
I was once had a job as a security guard at the Legg Mason tourney (don’t ask!). I was guarding the men’s locker room. Courier, Aggasi, Chang, even Brooke Shields (who at the time was with Andre) needed my approval to pass (I know, power trip). After one day I quit the job. I realized a job where I had to stand for 8 hours wasn’t for me. I was a (cough cough) imposing figure by the locker room though.
By the way, here is a must read article for Asian/South Asian tennis fans.
He lost last night in the quarter finals (tough day)…however I predict that be breaks top 70 in about 9 months. He is especially effective on clay (he missed the clay season last year because of College). He is also extremely quick. Has phenomenal fitness and tires opponents out by getting balls most won’t dream of nearing. On the other hand he needs to badly improve his second serve. Its really weak.
He uses a Pure Drive so I must give props!
8 · sn said
do you want that?
“do you want that?”
Nice article…didn’t know Becker knocked up a girl at Nobu. Still chang was ranked #2 in the world for a lonnnnng time, not a bad place to be.
The difference being that Chang was an Asian American, while Somdev is just Indian. There’s no Indian-American thing going on with him. But I’m sure that he’s already set and example for desis in general..be it Indians or Indian Americans etc.
Talking of Indian American tennis players, Rajeev Ram is the first name that comes to mind. He has had a good year thus far, winning challengers and competing in the ATP circuit. The Uberoi sisters (Shikha opted to play for India, while Neha still plays for US) are struggling on the tour this year, while Sunita Rao (another Indian American who now plays for India) is having a good year. She partnered Sania Mirza at the olympics, but lost to the top seeds.
There are some good Indian American players at the college level too..Tara Iyer and one guy at Purdue I guess.
http://www.leggmasontennisclassic.com/upload/419.jpg
Here’s Somdev hanging out with UVa cheerleaders 😉
From the 1960s to the 1970s Ramanathan Krishnan and Vijay Amritraj made it almost to the summit of international tennis without quite conquering it. Romesh K., Ramanathan’s son, showed consdiderable promise. It would be great if Somdev Devvarman or others after him reached the very summit in the future.
Nice! Look at that, if it isnt Sanam in the video. Kidaah!
Damn me and my broken shoulder.. AAARGHH!!
brown_dbd, those are Redskins cheerleaders (of Indian Premier League fame)
Watching Somdev’s bounce, it is about time India focus on calves instead of cows.
Here a couple of other desis doing well in college Tennis this season.
Ragini Acharya
Sanam Singh, who is a sophomore at U of Virginia and played along with Somdev.
Does anybody have Sanam’s email? Pretty F-ing awesome dude. So, all those times I lost to Sanam dont hurt me anymore, i can be a little proud for beating him when those anomalys happened. I’d just hate to see Sanam taller than me 😀
Somdev is playing for India in the Davis cup matches against the Romanian team in Romania tomorrow. Interestingly, He will be playing with Prakash Amritraj who as per Wikipedia was born in California and won the National Championships at Univ. of Southern California. Of course the regulars Leander and Mahesh Bhupathi are the remaining two members of this years davis cup team.