Taking Tennis beyond Bengaluru, to tier-two cities | Bengaluru News

It’s just past 10am on a weekday. The summer sun is already pressing hard on the Tumakuru District Tennis Stadium (TDTS). But the courts are alive with the sound of tennis balls being struck. Players stretch for serves and get down low for returns, cracking through the heat, refusing to yield to the day.Beyond the baseline, the venue itself seems to be in motion. Workers put the finishing touches on a rock garden, a newly added gymnasium is taking shape, and a modest clubhouse is being reworked into a players’ lounge, each upgrade signalling a greater ambition taking root in the system.Set within the sprawling Tumkur University campus in Kuvempunagar, the refurbished, floodlit tennis facility now boasts of three all-weather courts, bordered by a spectator gallery with seating for 800. A practice court sits alongside the main complex.The International Tennis Federation’s W35 event in Tumakuru in early May marked the TDTS’ return to the circuit after a gap of 23 years.The Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association’s (KSLTA) goal to take tennis to the districts and reel local communities into the sport is renewed with every week of competition at these venues. When the visionary duo of late Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna and Sunder Raju took charge of the KSLTA at the turn of the millennium, one of their aims was to take tennis beyond Bengaluru and into the state’s tier-two cities.It started in Kalaburagi in the early 2000s, and then in Tumakuru, Chikkamagaluru and Davanagere, recalls Sunil Yajaman, joint-secretary of both the KSLTA and the All India Tennis Association. “Now we have tennis in some 11 districts.”Tumakuru District Tennis Stadium’s debut on international tennis was in 2003, when it hosted an ATP Challenger featuring Indian stars Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna. The just concluded W35 may be a smaller event in comparison, but it carries a larger message as it marks Tumakuru’s return to the global tennis map.Fourteen years ago, the stadium fell silent, undone as much by a protracted land dispute with the university as by years of neglect that saw player numbers dwindle and tournaments fade.Arun Kumar, now head coach at the TDTS, keenly takes in the action in the middle. He was just 13 when the ATP Challenger came to town. When the stadium shut in 2014, he was forced to pack up and look at a different city. With few opportunities in the districts, he moved to Bengaluru to hone his coaching skills.Late last year, a revival of the stadium was set in motion. G Parameshwara, Karnataka’s home minister, once a top-notch athlete himself and a Tumakuru native, gave the go-ahead. Deputy commissioner and district magistrate Subha Kalyan, IAS, moved quickly to get the stadium up and running.Arun Kumar, who returned to work in his hometown last Nov, now trains 85 players across age groups, including a growing 30-plus cohort. He has the support of two assistant coaches. Physical conditioning is overseen by marathoner KG Balaji.The inclusion of older players is perhaps done with the hope of stirring a ripple effect, that they would one day bring their children along to these sessions, seeding the next generation of players, and to demonstrate to people that you can start the sport at any age.Subha has already set her sights on an indoor facility, arguing that the stadium needs a roof to withstand the region’s unpredictable weather. “It was too little time for us to complete an indoor stadium because we wanted to get the courts ready in time for the tournament, which the KSLTA helped us get in short notice. An indoor stadium is our long-term goal,” says Subha.Bopanna, the former doubles World No.1, is particularly grateful to the Krishna-Raju duo for taking tennis to small towns. “Under Krishna’s leadership, tennis went to so many districts in Karnataka,” he says. “I was one of those players who went to all these districts.”Yajaman, who visited Tumakuru in 2004 to conduct an ITF coaches course, says KSLTA’s next target is another 10 districts which they hope to cover in the next couple of years. He believes that taking international tournaments beyond the big cities is a win-win for everyone. “Local administrations get to showcase their region as healthy, sports-loving places. Players can travel on smaller budgets and compete before packed stadiums,” he explains.From a business perspective, building these facilities benefits local enterprise, he says. Karnataka is the only state in India to take tennis to as many as ten tier-two cities. Besides the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium in Bengaluru’s green lung Cubbon Park, Mysuru, Tumakuru, Davanagere, Dharwad, Udupi, Ballari, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Belagavi and Mandya have all hosted international tournaments.The KSLTA’s challenge, however, at some of these tier-two centres is sustainability — venues host one-off tournaments, and after the initial enthusiasm, courts slip into neglect. To counter this, they are pushing venues to stage at least one ITF men’s or women’s event annually, which is then supplemented by AITA junior and men’s and women’s tournaments, creating a 10-week calendar that keeps the facility active.Yajaman said the state body is eyeing Kalaburagi for deeper outreach. “We want to set up a regional residential centre there for 40–50 children in the 10 to 14 age group. We hope to get it off the ground by the end of the year.”If the KSLTA’s push into the districts is about widening the base of the sport, its real impact will be measured not in immediate champions but in access to courts, in rackets that find new hands, and in ambition that no longer feels geographically limited.