Success is sweet, but its secret is sweat. Nobody knows this better than national hard-court tennis champion Ashutosh Singh. Ten years ago he was just a ball boy at the DSLTA courts and now, he has broken into the big league, with the crowning glory being the national title in front of his home crowd in Delhi.

“Nobody took my game seriously till I won the doubles title with Sunil Kumar Sipaeya in the Delhi Nationals two years ago. This year, I reached the finals of the ITF Futures in Delhi before the National title came. I trained in Europe and the stint there helped me a lot in improving my baseline game as well as my serves. My coaches — Arun and Chandrasekhar have stood by me in testing times,” said the 25-year-old.

Tennis runs in Ashutosh’s genes. Father Balram Singh was part of the Indian Davis Cup squad and sister Shalini Thakur was once No 2 in the AITA rankings before taking up coaching.

How come it took him so long to make it big? “It surprises me when people call me a late bloomer. I don’t think 25 is too old an age for a National champion. I have my own reasons for not being able to break through early, with finance being one of the major constraints. I didn’t want to burn a hole in my family’s pocket. But love for the racquets kept me going all these years,” says Ashutosh.

The shy Delhiite says he prefers hard-courts more as it suits his style of the game.

“Basically, I am not that comfortable playing on fast surfaces. That is one of the reasons that I have thrived more on the hard-court. But I am working on my game on the grass too,” he added.

Positive attitude

It might come as a surprise that the calm and cool Ashutosh – never the one to show any emotions on the court — idolises the fiery Australian Lleyton Hewitt. “I like his aggression on the court. He wears his attitude on his sleeve.” But Ashutosh dismissed suggestions that he is not aggressive.

“May be I don’t look that aggressive on the court. But I have it in me to motivate myself and I know where to draw the line between aggression and arrogance”.

In the ITF Futures first leg at Bellary, all the Indian interests were centred on him and he didn’t disappoint by ousting top seed Pavol Cervenak in the first round before bowing to eventual champion Rainer Eitzinger.

However, Ashutosh teamed up with Vivek Shokeen to win the doubles crown.

“I find it difficult to fathom why most of the top ranked players skip doubles. Playing doubles will only help you improve your game, especially court coverage.”

And how does he find playing with different partners? “It’s all a matter of understanding. Here I won with Shokeen and pairing with Vijay Kannan, I have won against him and Tushar Liberhan in the Delhi Futures”.

The pre-quarterfinal defeat against Dekel Valtzer in the Gulbarga Open certainly has not gone down well with Ashutosh. “I fought hard in the second set before going down in the decider in the tie-breaker. This is one of the defeats which is hard to swallow. But I hope to learn from my mistakes,” says Ashutosh.

Davis Cup dreams

Representing the country in Davis Cup is every budding player’s dream and Ashutosh is no different. He feels he is getting closer to his long-cherished dream after being named skipper of the six-member National squad for the forthcoming series against Pakistan.

“When you play consistently over a period of time, it is highly unlikely that your performance will go unrewarded. I am an eternal optimist and I do nurture hopes of playing in the Davis Cup for the country sooner or later.”