Ajay Malik, a 13-year-old Class 9 student, has won the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship. He used to practice on mud courts on agricultural fields of his father. He started playing tennis at the age of 10 and is being coached by his cousin Sombir Malik. Sombir learnt the game by watching matches on television but unfortunately due to the elbow issue, couldn’t take it forward. Under his guidance, Ajay won under 14 boys single title at the DLTA Complex.
His father Ajmer Malik is a retired Subedar from Indian Army and had no money to pay for refreshment between breaks during his matches. Throughout the match, Ajay just drank water which solely gave him enough strength to endure himself to the end of the game.
Ajay has two pairs of shoes. He uses one to daily practice while he has kept the other one for tournaments.
According to media reports, everything at the Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Sansthan, the academy run by Ajmer, has some 'desi jugad' as he decided not to crib about lack of money and facilities but managed to give enough for practice to the kids.
The net for the mud courts is supported by electricity poles, which were felled due to rain and strong winds. The lines on the courts are not drawn by lime powder but by nylon ropes so that they last long and money is saved.
Tyres of different weights ranging from 5kg to 100kg are used while running to build strength in legs and wrist strength is developed by climbing on thick ropes, dangling between two huge cement pillars. In fact, Ajmer spent nearly Rs 3 lakh of his Rs 13 lakh retirement fund to build the tennis courts for his son.
A report in The Times Of India says that Ajmer, who himself was a national level wrestler, has confidence in his training regimen but DLTA coach Arun Kumar, who has been instrumental in Ajay becoming a tennis player says the training base needs to shift in some time.
It was Arun, who gave tips to Ajay's coach Sombir and also presented them with 50 tennis balls to start the training three years back.
"With this tough training, he definitely has developed endurance but what about speed. He is mentally tough that is why he survived on just water during nationals but he needs tactical exposure. He has right technique but you know top players finish points in 7 to 10 seconds. That's a different training method which he would need in near future," Arun, who has travelled as coach with many junior Indian team players, said.
Meanwhile, according to a report in the Indian Express, tennis fans and fraternity acknowledged the success of young national champion Ajay Singh, who overcame several hardships to become the national champion, with a few coming forward to lend him support.
India’s Davis Cup coach Zeeshan Ali has offered a scholarship to Ajay.
“We want to train this kid at our academy in Bangalore. He can stay here and we will take care of his training and fitness,” Zeeshan told PTI.
A tennis fan in Hong Kong came forward to offer help after reading the PTI news story on social media.
