Nirupamas, Martinas, & Cooking Gas 🎾 | #188
+ which state has the GI tag for Rasgulla? ➾
Friends,
It was a momentous week for Indian tennis - Sumit Nagal became the first Indian man in over 3 decades to beat a seeded player at a Grand Slam tournament, and Rohan Bopanna notched his 500th career win - at age 43.
Though successes have been few and far between of late for India in tennis, it wasn't always the case. Tennis is one of the few truly international sports where India can claim to be among the best in the world. We have reached the finals of Davis Cup (the World Cup of tennis) thrice - only 16 countries have ever won the Davis Cup in over 120 years.
This week we take a look at some interesting stories about India and tennis.
Things we learnt this week 🤓
For nearly 3 decades, Leander Paes was the torch bearer of Indian tennis. He overcame a wrist injury to win India its only Olympic medal in tennis in 1996. He was a lone warrior in the Davis Cup sealing innumerable wins against much higher ranked opponents such as Goran Ivanesevic, Wayne Ferreria. He is also among the only people to have a winning head to head record against both Pete Sampras AND Roger Federer. But our favourite fact about Leander Paes is that he has won Wimbledon with Martina Navratilova and also someone who was named after her - Martina Hingis. Leander’s favorite drink might be Vodka Martina - little shaken not stirred.
Talking about people with similar names - Nirupama is special for Indian tennis. Nirupama Mankad, daughter in law of the famous cricketer Vinoo Mankad, was the first Indian woman at a Grand Slam. She participated in the mixed doubles event in 1971 along with Anand Amritraj and reached round 2. In 1998, another Nirupama - Nirupama Sanjeev (nee Vaidyanathan), became the first Indian woman to win a round in the singles event of a Grand Slam when she reached round 2 at the Australian Open. Nirupama Sanjeev, retired from the sport but returned to partner with Rohan Bopanna at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Ramanathan Krishnan is probably India’s greatest tennis player. In the 50s, he played the sport to the highest level possible reaching a world ranking of 3. In the process he reached the semifinals of Wimbledon twice. But he was always a pioneer in a completely different field - Cooking gas! At a time when homes used firewood or kerosene, Ramanathan Krishnan was one of the very first distributors of cooking gas, and the only distributor of Indane (then called Calgas) in Madras back in the early 60s. Back then, people were wary of using cooking gas, but Ramanathan asked his customers to use it for a week. If they were not satisfied, he would take the cylinder back for free. Once people used gas, there was no going back. Even today, at a sprightly young age of 87, Ramanathan Krishnan continues to manage work at the gas agency.
From IWTK, with love 💌
Which state has the GI tag for Rasgulla? It’s…complicated.
Tata Motors crafted a condom brand called Dipper. Know more here.
Only In India 🇮🇳
The Bollywood remake of White Chicks is going swimmingly well.
Stay hydrated,
❤️ IWTK