Somdev Devvarman gives up on professional tennis in this New Year

Somdev made the announcement on January 1, 2017 on his timeline, through this tweet:

 

 

Starting 2017 on a new note, retiring from pro tennis. Thanks to everyone for the love and support over the years. #newyearnewbeginnings

— Somdev Devvarman (@SomdevD) January 1, 2017

 

 

The decision to retire is being attributed to his present form by sports analysts. Off late the Arjuna Awardee had been struggling to recover from his 2012 shoulder injury and his matches were also few and far in between. In fact, this move was being speculated when news broke that he was going to give the Chennai Open a miss this year.

 

Speculations are now on that the 31-year-old player might move to showing his expertise as coach. An article in Indian Express had previously quoted Anand Amritraj, the outgoing Davis Cup non-playing captain as saying, “I didn’t know how serious he was, but I knew he was interested at one point to be a coach.”

 

30 years is usually considered old enough for tennis stars to retire. Most sportstars have attributed this to rigorous training year round and the constant need to keep fit and athletic. After lot of surface changes and matches a player's knees, shoulders etc. do take a beating and injuries often start flaring up at odd times forcing a relook on performance and stamina. However, this doesn’t mean that the tennis fraternity does not see its players perform well post 30 years. You have brilliant examples in the form of Roger Federer and Serena Williams.

 

A brief rewind of his journey reminds us how this Indian tennis sensation had made the world sit up and notice. This announcement marks an unexpected and abrupt end to what was once a promising tennis career.

 

Somdev was widely recognised as India’s star singles player and he proved his mettle early on. The tennis player from Guwahati made his foray into the minds of the Indian sport lovers in 2008. His 44-1 win-loss record in 2008 at the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship remains unmatched so far.

 

In his first ATP tour, he made headlines at the 2009 Chennai Open. His defeating Spaniard Carlos Moya was the turning point. He then defeated Iva Karlovic in the same match only to lose the final title to Reinnar Schuttler.

 

His game specialities has been his work rate and speed and ease at the baseline. However, his career and game had been fraught with difficulties. There were issues with coaching and his lack of clear direction to take his game forward. These things came into the fore when experts were discussing his form in 2013-2014.

 

In 2015 he even hired a new coach to get his game back on track and hone his serve. He was then working on becoming more fitter in general, lamenting that he was turning 30.

 

A regular in India's Davis Cup squad, Somdev appeared in 14 rubbers and played a crucial role in India reaching the World Group back in 2010.

 

Somdev also made the finals of two ATP Tour events - the 2009 Chennai Open as a wildcard and the 2011 South Africa Open. He also has the singles and doubles gold medals at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, to his name. That singles gold medal proved how he was aiming to outdo other Indian tennis greats like Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.

 

with inputs from PTI