The Hindu : dated July 9, 1953: R. Krishnan on Wimbledon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 09, 2003

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Miscellaneous - This Day That Age

dated July 9, 1953: R. Krishnan on Wimbledon

Back home from London, India's Junior Tennis Champion Ramanathan Krishnan who extended the Australian champion. M. G. Rose in the first round of the Wimbledon championships said that the key-note of the game was attacking at the net. Tennis was becoming fast, and long rallies were few. It was all power, with the service, or in the net game. Krishnan said that the best match he witnessed was one between Jaroslav Drobny and Patty, which ran gruellingly to 93 games and lasted more than five hours. Patty had six match-points on Drobny's service, but lost narrowly on every occasion. Krishnan said, "Both men played aggressively. Patty's volleying was most impressive. No doubt he is acknowledged as the world's best in this department of the game. Patty very nearly collapsed in the fourth set, but managed to extend Drobny. Those who had watched Wimbledon during the last decade felt that match was the best encounter seen on the Centre Court. Patty later said it was his best performance at Wimbledon and he was a bit sorry that he still lost". Talking of his own performance, Krishnan said, "I did my best against Rose. After the match, Rose congratulated me, and advised me to concentrate on improving, my second service. Last year, I was beaten in the quarter-final in the Junior Wimbledon, but this year I fared better and reached the final. Although nominated by the All-India Lawn Tennis Association as one of their representatives at Wimbledon, I was not accepted so. Therefore, I had to go through the qualifying round, which I managed successfully. I am very grateful to the Rajpramukh of Mysore, without whose financial help I could not have made the trip." Asked about K. Nielsen of Denmark, the biggest surprise of that Wimbledon, Krishnan remarked, ``He has a powerful all-round game. He believes in attacking all the time. Until he reached the final, Nielsen played brilliantly, but in the end he lost to a superior player in Vic Seixas. Even for Nielsen, Seixas was too fast. "Of the Australian youngsters Ken Rosewall and Lew Hoad, Krishnan said the former was better suited for slow courts. Hoad, despite his powerful strokes, was not yet up to world class in his approach shots. Krishnan considered J. Ulrich (Denmark) the best boy player to take part in Junior Wimbledon. The other good players were W. Knight (Britain) and Grinda (France). Krishnan, seeded No. 4, took credit for beating the top-seeded Ulrich, but lost to Knight seeded No. 3.

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