‘The Next Level’ Program is an extensive player development program launched by the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) to identify and cultivate talented young tennis players from the state, with Indian Tennis legend Somdev Devvarman as its coach and mentor.
Players part of this program have already started showing great results, with several of them doing well at the ongoing Fenesta Nationals – Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (Men’s Singles Winner), Diya Ramesh (Girls U18 Finalist), Varun Verma (Boys U18 Semi-Finalist). And several others are set to compete in the U14 and U16 this week.
The complete player roster includes:
Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (17)
Diya Ramesh (15)
Arunkumar Lakshmi Prabha (19)
Varun Verma (17)
Kandhavel Mahalingam Akilandeshwari (16)
Haritha Shree Venkatesh (15)
Sree Syleswari Velmanikandan (16)
Fazal Ali Meer (14)
Deepshika Vinayagamurthy (14)
Savitha Bhuvaneswaran (15)
Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi (15) [NOTE – Maaya is not part of the program yet. But the program supports her]
We caught up with Devvarman to get his thoughts on the setup:
Tolasaria – Who conceptualized and initiated this program?
Devvarman – We’ve been thinking of different ways of doing it. I have been having many conversations with the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) on how to get something like this going in the right way. In the meantime, there were several players who were doing a good job, and it was just a question of collaborating in the right way. Finding the right balance was key.
Once we started doing it, the most important things were to get the trust of the kids and get the parents all-in. That’s the hardest bit. When you are out there running a program, there will always be some sort of issues – whether it’s from the parents or from the coaches. There are so many different issues when you are talking about a young, junior kid. Most importantly, we needed to make sure everybody was on the same page. That’s the kind of energy and culture you want to create, and support the coaches that have already done great work so far.
So TNTA came together with this ‘The Next Level’ program. And to be honest with you, this is just the beginning. We have long term goals. Hopefully, I am going to be a part of it to see a lot of those goals through. There are a lot of ideas on how we can take a player-centric approach. Each one of the players are in a unique position in their journeys. The timing was great, the players were great, fun kids, and I have been able to communicate the right things to them – it was to tell them that we have a long term vision for them, and it’s not just for their Tennis, but their future, in general.
Tolasaria – What is your role and when did you come in?
Devvarman – This is a team effort. I have been working with them for a long time. The courts that we are working at are the SDAT Nungambakkam Tennis Courts. They’ve been super supportive. I know it sounds silly, but getting courts for an uninterrupted time are basic challenges in India. SDAT has been great and understanding. TNTA has been fantastic. It’s just all of that coming together.
Sky’s the limit for something like this. When you start seeing kids like Rethin, Maaya, Diya, etc do well, we also get (pumped). Success breeds success in every academy and program. We are now more motivated than ever to do things and move in the right direction.
Tolasaria – How big is the player pool? And how did you select them?
Devvarman – It was pretty straightforward. I have been around the Chennai/Tamil Nadu ecosystem for a long enough time. Strictly by ranking. It is not just about us selecting the players, it’s also about having that trust that we know what is required for the players to have that success. That means helping with scheduling, colleges, injuries, rehab, strength program, etc. There are so many things that go into becoming a good junior tennis player, or having that chance to make it to the next level.
It has worked because we have had a great relationship with kids and their parents for a long time now. So when we said we were starting something like this, there was a lot of optimism. There were parents coming out to us and saying ‘Please help us’. What’s been great is the energy we’ve created and the feedback we’ve been getting.
These kids are young – 14, 15 to 18-19. We need to make sure that the everyday of these kids is well planned and well taken care of. And by the evreryday, I mean – when a kid comes into practice, they know exactly what they need to work on, what fitness programs they are on, what they’re working on in the gym, etc. It’s just a question of everybody turning up and doing it. Once everybody saw how simple that could be, it just fit right. Like I said, it’s just the beginning.
Tolasaria – These players would have had existing coaches and academies before coming to the program. How is the collaboration with them working?
Devvarman – We see there’s a lot of good coaching work happening around India, especially in Tamil Nadu. There are kids coming from Karur, Dindigul, Coimbatore, etc. You start realizing the importance that a lot of these coaches have. There is consistent success from one or two places or academies. In Karur, for example, there is somebody there doing something right, because there are good players coming out of there consistently. From Coimbatore, there’s Kandhavel and Maaya, they hit together and work together.
If these places and coaches are producing good players, we are helping them from ‘taking the next step’ perspective. If they keep doing great work, nothing like it.
Tolasaria – How do you see the Program developing in the next few years?
Devvarman – What is the next step for Rethin after winning the Men’s Nationals? What happens for Maaya when she needs to be in Europe and she needs to train? What is the next step for someone like Diya Ramesh? The answer is similar for all of them – you need to improve every aspect of your game. How long are we going to keep sending kids to Europe? How sustainable is that? How much funding is enough funding?
The bigger picture is how can we create something in our own ecosystem that actually helps? The general answer is you can’t do it alone. So we need to build a strong team of experts here for the long run in order to create a successful program.
We need to understand that there’s certain things in Europe that we can’t replicate here. The tournament structure, strength of competition – we can’t. The clay court tennis – we cannot but we can replicate the high level coaching and intensity to some degree and teach our coaches the right way to do things. If we have so many certified coaches, why can’t we find two decent ones for Junior or Senior Davis Cup? At some point, we need our own space and place with focussed development for everyone. We need to build – and to build, we need people to commit.
Eventually the program will grow to a point where the best players in the country know they can use our base to train, but we will always have a cap on the number of players we work with to maintain quality. There will be a lot of turnover as well with kids playing tournaments, moving to college or the tour. Once a player improves, we will always help them take their next step, and we’ll keep our focus on the next batch of young motivated talent and help them improve through our system.