A few days back, I met Rishi Sridhar who has been one of the players who has represented our country.

Rishi Sridhar narrated to Chennai Chimes he used to play tennis as a fun sport in his childhood days, which was when he was spotted and chosen by the Tennis Academy, Delhi. So he shifted his base to Delhi to take up this game as his career. He has played for India in the Under 14, Under 16, Under 18 age groups and also won the Nationals twice and traveled all over the world for International tournaments. 

After the rigmarole of his Tennis career, at present he has joined hands with Mr. Rajeev Vijaykumar who was his coach to train youngsters at the Madrasa-I-Azam School (behind Arts College) Mount Road, Chennai. He says there are many youngsters who have the interest and inclination towards tennis and come for regular coaching.  They have taken kids from the age group of six to eleven and have a senior group above the age of eleven, who undergo very vigorous and meticulous training. Discipline forms a very integral part of their coaching. When asked the right age to start playing the sport, he suggested that children could be engaged in a lot of physical activity such as gymnastics and athletics from the age of four so that they would be ready to start tennis coaching by the time they were seven.

Rishi owns a company called ‘Avalanche’, which is a sports infrastructure company, handling distribution of sports products of a multinational company. The enterprise is also involved in creating and preparing sports infrastructure like internationally approved synthetic surfaces, indoor courts and swimming pools in several corporates. Fitness equipment for setting up the infrastructure for gyms is also sold.

Rishi considers his win against the ace player Mahesh Bhupathy as a memorable moment in his career and expressed his gratitude to his trainers, Basu, Rajeev and Rajeev Naidu for their guidance and support at all times. He also says that environment at home was always conducive and encouraging to follow his passion. Today he derives a lot of satisfaction from his training sessions and is always open to accommodate children who are very keen to play tennis, into his academy.

When asked what his plans for the future were, he emphatically concluded, ‘My aim is to provide the right direction & opportunity and also bring out the best in every child’. 

Email  rishisridhar@gmail.com

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