Wimbledon Wonders

An ardent tennis aficionado’s summit!

June has always occupied a special place for me. Yes, as a child it meant that I could celebrate my birthday at the end of the month with new friends in my new class (school in India began mid -June). It was the onset of the monsoon seasons, and the first Bombay rains were always pleasant before the deluge commenced. And the inclement weather meant warm corn on the cobs (bhutta for the Indian tongue). But we didn’t eat them on the street, instead we savored them in front of the television, for June meant Wimbledon season.

My staple diet growing up included rice, pulses, vegetables, lot of cartoons, American & British sitcoms, cricket and tennis. My dad contributed to the last two and has been a lifelong avid tennis player and a tennis connoisseur!

He regaled me with anecdotes as a kid of Spencer Gore being the first individual to win Wimbledon way back in 1877 and Fred Perry being the last Brit to hold the crown, having won it in 1936, long before Andy Murray was on the circuit. He spoke of Ramanathan Krishnan, being the first Indian and Asian to enter a Wimbledon semi-final against the finest left hander the game had seen — Rod Laver. He told me about Ramnathan Krishnan’s son, Ramesh Krishnan, his personal friend, who once beat John McEnroe and was ranked 23, the highest by an Indian National. He…