Vishaal Uppal does the trick

By Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, APRIL 8. ``He has done it'', said an emotionally overwhelmed Dr. Beena Uppal, the mother of Vishaal Uppal, after the strapping young man had scaled the stadium wall to celebrate the moment by hugging her and the rest of the family members.

The 23-year-old Vishaal had started the match with a rousing overheader and finished it with an ace, and from beginning to end he showed that he had graduated to be a cheerful performer in the company of Leander Paes, for whom he had been a cheerleader in many a Davis Cup tie earlier in Delhi.

This time around, it was Varun Uppal, Vishaal's brother who took over the role of a cheerleader and worked up with the spectators, who thronged the venue in creating a vibrant atmosphere, to make the stadium reverberate with shouts of ``India, India'', ``Vishaal, Vishaal''.

If Vishaal's family members, father Anil Uppal, grand father Col. K. K. Uppal, sister Neelanjana and her husband Rahul Khubchand were all moved, some of them close to tears, it was because they had all along goaded the lad to move ahead in his career.

``It is a feeling of great joy, and a sense of fulfilment. Vishaal thrilled us by playing so relaxed and with such assurance. It is all because of the tremendous leadership of Ramesh Krishnan, and the spirited support of Leander Paes. Vishaal has many miles to go, but we hope he will continue in the same fashion'', said Mr. Anil Uppal, even as he recalled the support of a long list of people who had helped in the growth of Vishaal as a tennis player. It was not as if Vishaal Uppal had sprung from nowhere. He had been making waves, especially as a doubles specialist, by winning titles and playing good matches against some of the tough teams in the circuit, in the company of the young Mustafa Ghouse.

Moreover, ever since he was spotted by the late Ram Lal at Modern School, Barakhamba Road, when he was 11 years old, and then trained by the coach's son, Vinod Kumar, and much later by T. Chandrasekaran at the DHAITA centre, the Delhi lad had showed that he had a big game by dominating the various age groups in the junior circuit. If anything he lacked the intensity of focus to do justice to his potential.

Maybe, the fact that he had retained his cheerful demeanour, rather than develop a tunnel-vision, that helped Vishaal to play to his best, in front of the home crowd.

Vishaal played without any tension or nervousness, except while committing three doublefaults in a row in the second game of the fourth set. To his credit, the wiry young man who looks the Indian version of a Petr Korda, never once allowed himself to be broken in the whole match.

In fact, the Korean team members on the sideline tried to unnerve him with comments at inappropriate time, especially when he was going for the second serve. Leander even complained to the chair umpire vehemently that he should give a warning to the Korean camp after Vishaal committed a doublefault because of the disturbing noise in the sixth game of the fourth set.

``I wanted to leave everything on the court. Not an ounce to carry with me after the match'', said Vishaal, as he revealed his resolve to play his heart out.

In the event, he did not have to, as Leander brought the best out of his partner, though the Indian No.1 chose to call him the `leader', who took the load on himself. Of course, Vishaal did leave a lot of happy memories for everyone to carry home.

``Leander kept encouraging me, asking me to go for the big serves, and make them play'', said Vishaal, who had excellent communication with one of world's leading doubles players, most of the time quite understandably in Hindi.

More than the communication, it was the execution with clinical precision, that made the crowd, which included the Union Finance Minister Mr. Yashwant Sinha, enjoy the afternoon and give the Indian pair a standing ovation at the end of the gripping encounter.

Considering that he was making his Davis Cup debut, ``it was a sterling performance'', said Naresh Kumar, the former Indian captain, who had blooded Leander in the doubles against the Japanese in 1990, when the 16-year-old had responded then by winning the rubber with Zeeshan Ali 18-16 in the fifth set after five hours and 20 minutes.

This time around, it was a master stroke to play the local lad, but Ramesh passed on the credit to Leander, who had opened the subject a month ago, but as a true leader said that he was prepared to take the flak, had the move backfired.

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