Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and written by Zach Baylin, King Richard is a biographical sports drama film starring Will Smith as Richard Williams, the father and coach of Venus and Serena Williams. With a clear vision and a bold 78-page plan, Richard is set on making his two daughters, Venus and Serena, tennis legends. They practise on courts in Compton, California, where he instils in them a strong dedication and sharp instincts. Even when things get tough, and people doubt them, the Williams family works together to overcome challenges and surpass the expectations set for them. Will Smith shines in portraying Richard Williams as a father who has an unwavering belief in his daughters. He is a flawed yet inspiring figure, doing his best for their future. The child actors deliver outstanding performances. King Richard is a feel-good movie, showcasing the determination of a father striving for his daughters’ success.

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During our days of primary education, there were no mobile phones and no Google to enhance our worldly knowledge. Our means of gathering knowledge were books, magazines and newspapers. A few of such books that I remember were the Read and Tell series and some eight-page small pamphlet-like books that conveyed several interesting stories. The latter carried mostly character-building stories and the couple of stories that I can still recollect are Rama Cried Wolf and Robert Bruce: The King of Scotland.

Robert Bruce was the King of England who tried to conquer Scotland, but failed six times. After the sixth failure, Robert was hiding in a cave when he saw a spider trying to stretch its web from one end of the cave to the other. The spider failed six times but did not give up its attempt and climbed the wall each time to meet with success on its seventh attempt. Inspired by the small being, Robert the Bruce gathered his army and met with success to become the King of Scotland.

For the present generation, this story of Robert the Bruce may be a new one but then they needn’t get lost in the history of England and Scotland. For the present generation a personality imparting a similar inspiration about not to give up is that of Rohan Machanda Bopanna, an Indian professional tennis player who has etched a new level in tennis doubles which is now being termed as ‘Level 43’.

Born on 4 March 1980 in Bengaluru, Rohan Bopanna turned professional in 2003. His singles achievements are a total contrast to what he has achieved in doubles. In singles, Rohan has never won any ATP or Grand Slam title, while in doubles, with nearly 60% wins he has a total of 25 titles. The highest ever singles ATP ranking that Rohan has ever achieved has been well below 200 while in the doubles he created a furore when in the company of Matthew Ebden, he won the Australian Open doubles title in 2024 and on 29 January 2024 attained the No. 1 ATP ranking in doubles, just 35 days shy of attaining the age of 44 years.

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When a nineteen-year-old Spaniard won the U.S. Open in 2022, he created a furore in the tennis world; the youngest to do so since Pete Sampras in 1990. However, till date it remains the only Grand Slam title that he has ever won, but with superlative performances in other tennis tournaments around the world, Carlos Alcaraz Garfia found the favour of both, the Association of Tennis Professionals as well as the World Tennis Association, as the World No. 1 in singles.

With eleven ATP Tour-level singles titles and four Masters 1000 titles against his name, Carlos has created several records as the youngest player to achieve those distinctions. In fact, the year 2022 was a glorious year for this young man. Still a month short of entering the last of his teens, he won the Miami Open and then the Madrid Open, a month later. At the age of 19 years, 4 months and 6 days, he became the youngest player to be rated No. 1 in the ATP rankings, and maintained that ranking till the end of the year to become the youngest player to retain the No. 1 till the year end.

In the Grand Slam events, Carlos Alcaraz’s performance has not been all that impressive except for that one U.S. Open title. Last year, he reached the third round of the Australian Open, the quarter-finals of the French Open and was eliminated in the fourth round at the Wimbledon. This year, he did not play at the Australian Open but did impress in reaching the semi-finals at Roland Garos.

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This magazine has been blessed in recent times thanks to the number of teenagers who have been hogging the limelight in various spheres of activities around the world; it always gives us an opportunity to write about them and also serves as an inspiration for the readers of this youth magazine. The latest teenage sensation has been Emma Raducanu; winner of the U.S. Open and even more sensational was her victory in straight sets in the women’s final of the tournament.

If coming events cast their shadows before then Emma’s U.S. Open win should not surprise ardent tennis followers. After all, at Wimbledon, the Grand Slam event preceding the U.S. Open during the calendar year, Emma was a wildcard entry as a consequence of being Britain’s number one ranked player and she managed to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon. The U.S. Open was even more surprising as she came through the qualifying rounds to wrest the title, beating Leylah Fernandez 6-3, 6-4.

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Only the greatest in tennis have gone on to win 1,000 ATP matches in the Open Era of the game. Jimmy Connors with 1,274 wins leads the elite group with Roger Federer taking second place with 1,242 victories followed by Ivan Lendl finishing his career with 1,068 wins. When Rafael Nadal walked away with his 20th Grand Slam title at Paris in 2020 by defeating Novak Djokovic in the final match of the tournament, it marked Nadal’s 999th ATP match victory and very soon in the next tournament he achieved the 1,000th win.

At the French Open, Nadal tied with Roger Federer in winning 20 singles Grand Slam titles. However, Nadal’s titles are heavily skewed in variety as out of his twenty Grand Slam titles, thirteen have come solely at Roland Garros; a record that may never be replicated. While Federer has been more of a master on grass, Nadal has held his own on clay. If variety of surfaces is to be a measure of any player’s greatness then, on another count, Nadal scores over Federer. If ATP Masters 1,000 tournaments are in contention, then Novak Djokovic leads the band with 36 titles, followed closely by Nadal who holds 35 titles while Roger Federer is a distant third with 28 titles against his name.

Rafael took to tennis from the age of four and was coached by his uncle Toni Nadal. The promise that the child Rafael showed was for anyone to see. Lacking in strength as a child, Rafael used both hands to play both the forehand as well as the backhand. Although, even till date he continues to do so while playing the backhand, he is now a master of the forehand while using only his left hand.

Born in Spain’s Manacor town on 3 June 1986, Rafael became a professional tennis player at the age of 15 and went on to win a record eleven ATP titles as a teenager.

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It was way back in 1990 that a sixteen-year-old girl from Yugoslavia named Monica Seles became the youngest-ever player to win the French Open singles title. In fact, as a teenager, she went on to win eight Grand Slam titles and showed the potential to win many more. However, her tennis career was ruined badly by a fanatical Steffi Graf fan who could not bear to see his idol lose to Monica and stabbed the latter on her back. After her recovery, Monica did make an appearance on the tennis courts and even won a Grand Slam title but she could never be her old self ever again.

Ever since Monica, no female teenager could ever win a Grand Slam singles title until nineteen-year-old Iga Natalia Swaiatek from Poland created a flutter to emerge as the new queen of Roland Garros. In the process, she became the first-ever Polish tennis player to win a singles Grand Slam title and also the lowest WTA ranked player ever to win the French Open singles title. Her title was embroiled in some other wonderful achievements, as well. To begin with, she did not drop a single set on her way to the title, she did not lose more than five games in any of her matches and in her entire journey to the title she lost a total of only 28 games; a better record being held by none other than the legendry Steffi Graf whose record of losing just 20 games in 1988 may never be equalled ever.

It was only in last year’s French Open that Iga suffered a fourth round defeat at the hands of Simona Halep and the 6-1, 6-0 defeat was a total dissemination of Iga’s hopes. However, the teenager had her revenge when in the same fourth round, this year in the French Open, she defeated the top-seeded Simona with a score line of 6-1, 6-2. Iga’s path to the final of the French Open was not an easy one as in the very first round her opponent was last year’s runner-up Marketa Vondrousova but if coming events cast their shadows before it was obvious as Iga defeated Marketa 6-1, 6-2 on her march to the title.

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Kiara D’Souza hit the tennis court when she was barely seven, not out of love for the game, but because she was overweight and her parents wanted her to reduce, and enrolled her in the nearby Willingdon Gymkhana. Today, as a teenager, she is passionate about tennis without neglecting her studies. She recently passed out of St Andrew’s Junior College, Bandra, Mumbai, with distinction. The Teenager Today team met Kiara at our office for a short interview. Excerpts:

Hi Kiara, The Teenager Today is delighted to meet you! Would you like to tell us briefly about your early years: any special memories?
I was born on 21 November 2002. Both my parents worked in the banking sector. So my grandmother took care of me. I had sweet memories of my grandma making delicious food, and feeding me with lots of love. I started putting on weight because of no physical activity. In fact, my doctor told my parents that I was 14 kgs more than my desired weight and he suggested that I take up some sport for physical activity. My parents enrolled me in the nearby Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana and I took my first steps to the tennis court when I was barely 7.

What made you choose lawn tennis as your most favourite game?
I was so-so about tennis in the beginning because at that age I didn’t want to practise at all. It was just a form of physical activity. I had a lot of difficulty coping with the game as I did not have an athletic body. Also, my coach was not sure about me taking up tennis as my foot movements were very slow… but by then I was already passionate about tennis and decided to pursue it as a career. What I did have was the drive to become the best. That determination, fighting spirit and patience was inculcated in me by my parents at a very early age. I was taught never to give up and trust in God. It helped me to stay calm and composed in dealing with my insecurities.

Do you recall the first tournament that you played and won? Surely you were very excited! Would you share some of those feelings with us?
Participating in a tennis tournament at the age of 12 was an unforgettable experience. I won both U-14 singles and doubles events at Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association. Reaching the finals of the two events was something I always cherished but winning gold in both the events was like the icing on the cake. One of my most exciting moments was when MIDDAY Mumbai covered the event with the title “Double Delight for Kiara D’Souza”. This was one of the most emotionally-satisfying victories for me.

Who do you look up to as your role model in tennis?
Serena Williams has always been my idol. She revolutionized women’s tennis with her powerful style of play. Her powerful serves, groundstrokes and superb athleticism have inspired me to push myself to the next level.

Tell us about some of the major tournaments you played and won. Which is the most prominent among them?
I have a list of achievements and none of these would have been possible without my Lord Jesus who gives me the strength to do well whatever I do every day. In 2019, I represented Maharashtra State for Nationals at SGFI New Delhi. One of my most remarkable tournaments was when I qualified to play International Tennis Federation Women’s 25K in November 2019.

Do you have a coach? How long has he/she been coaching you?
Yes, I have an official coach. She is Supriya Mallaya who has been training me for the past one year. She accompanies me to all the tournaments.

How many hours do you practise daily?
I practise for nearly three hours daily on skill sets and another two hours for fitness training.

What about the lockdown days? How did you manage to have your daily practice during these months?
Covid-19 has caused maximum disruption to an athlete’s life. It’s very difficult to pursue the sport with all the precautionary measures; however, as an athlete I am doing my off-season training on fitness and skill sets so that when the season begins I am fit for the tournaments. I do my high-intensity workouts along with brushing up my skills (working on my mechanics/technical corrections) in the limited space at home.

How do you cope with your hectic schedule of being a regular student, your practice, and the outstation journeys for tournaments?
I have learned to manage my time effectively. It is very important to plan and prioritize, which means giving up on many time-consuming distractions, seeing the bigger picture and reminding me of my goal. Also I had great support and special guidance from my teachers especially when I missed my classes for outstation tournaments.

What else are you interested in other than tennis?
I am very fond of singing and strumming my guitar; it helps me to ease out.

How do you rate yourself as a tennis star? Your tennis dreams?
As a tennis player I had a very promising start, but I have a long way to go. I believe in putting my 100% effort and then surrendering to the Lord. My dream is to represent my country and to win Grand Slams.

You were a student of St Andrew’s Junior College, Bandra, for the past 2 years. How did the college support you in your tennis journey?
My principal, Dr Marie Fernandes, my sports director and my teachers believed in me from day one and they were always there to motivate me. The college recently felicitated me as the Most Outstanding Sportswoman of the Year.

Your future plans?
God-willing, my future plans include training abroad to be a pro tennis player.

A brief personal message for our readers?
Everyone wants success but only a few work for it. They are the ones who realize their dreams!
“There is no way around hard work, embrace it,” Roger Federer once said. I have to tell this to everyone that it doesn’t matter how old you are or how young you are… You can achieve what your heart desires. In my own case, I was not a born athlete with any natural skills. I had to work very hard, dedicate myself and be determined. In every field you require focus, hard work and most importantly self-belief. Sometime, you gotta be your own cheerleader. Above all, it is very important to stay connected with God; that’s where you get the strength you need to work hard!

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The present world news is limited to just one thing — Corona, Corona and Corona! The world of sports has been consigned to oblivion. Lockdown is the world order; however, some sporting events have been given the go ahead in some countries. Till the past few months, the sporting world has been so dynamic that one never gets a chance to look back into events and personalities that have lent various sports the mass following that they enjoy today. The suspension of sports around the world gives one the interval to reflect on some of the unforgettables of the various games.

Making no bones about it, cricket has been my all-time favourite among all types of games and sports so it would be quite natural for me to reflect upon names like Sir Gary Sobers or Don Bradman. If cricket wasn’t my favourite, other names that could surface would be perhaps Pele, Mohammad Ali, Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, Bobby Fischer, Rod Laver, Major Dhayan Chand, Rudy Hartono, Mark Spitz and several such names. However, the name that surfaces to the zenith of my memory is that of a lady tennis player — Mrs Margaret Smith Court.

The prefix Mrs to her name has not been used without a cause. Mrs Margaret Court had a career that was punctuated by marriage and three childbirths and yet she holds several enviable records; a career that was equally glorious in the Open era of tennis as well as before with certain achievements that no male or female player has ever been able to emulate. Her achievements can never be erased from my student day memory; it was almost half a century ago but for me Mrs Margaret Court remains the greatest sports personality of all times.

Margaret Court (nee Smith) was born on 16 July 1942 at Albury, in New South Wales as the fourth child to Lawrence Smith and Catherine Smith. She took to tennis from the age of eight years and with a height of 5’9” emerged as a player of great strength and long reach. Her exceptional agility on the tennis court made her the toughest opponent for all her adversaries.

Margaret made her first Grand Slam appearance at the Australian Open, in 1959 where she suffered a second round loss to the ultimate women’s title winner of that year. She came back strongly the following year to win the Australian Open title which was the start of her eleven wins at that tournament; seven of which came in succession from 1960 to 1966. Incidentally, while Margaret won the 1960 ladies’ singles title at the Australian Open, she lost the final of the junior title in the same tournament.

In a career that stretched from 1959 to 1977 at the international level, Margaret took her first break from the international circuit, in 1966, when she got married. Her second break came in 1971 for the delivery of her first child, the third in 1974 for the birth of her second child and again in 1976 for the birth of her third child. In fact, when in 1977, Margaret withdrew from the quarter final of the Virginia Slims Championship, it was only because she learnt that she was pregnant for the fourth time.

Despite so many breaks in her career, Mrs Margaret Court holds the record for having won the maximum number of Grand Slam singles titles, totalling 24. While eleven of these came at the Australian Open, she won five each at the French Open and the US Open and three at the Wimbledon. Add to it her 19 women’s doubles titles and 21 mixed doubles titles and her Grand Slam titles add up to a total of 64 Grand Slam titles. Perhaps no further evidence is required to establish her position as the greatest ever player that took position on a tennis court.

Margaret Court is the first Australian woman to win the three other Grand Slam tournaments outside her home country. She was ranked the World No. 1 women’s player in 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1970 and 1973. She remains one among the only three women players that have won all the four Grand Slam titles in a single year. She achieved the rare distinction in 1970, while Maureen Connolly had performed the feat in 1953 and Steffi Graf in 1988. Thus, Margaret remains the first woman to achieve the distinction in the Open era.

However, Margaret’s achievements go beyond Maureen and Steffi as she remains the only player to have won all the four Grand Slam titles in a single year in both singles as well as in the mixed doubles. In fact, she did the latter twice; once in 1963 while partnering Ken Fletcher and with three different partners in 1965.

Only three women in the history of the game have achieved what no man has ever been able to perform on the tennis court and that is having won the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events at all the four Grand Slam tournaments. Here too, Margaret Court is a class apart as she is the only player to have achieved the distinction twice; once before the start of the Open era and once again in the Open era.

Mrs Margaret Court’s achievements on the tennis court can never ever be replicated as she established herself as the queen of the court in the Open era as well as in the years before it. If one single line ever summed up the greatness of a player, it would be best to quote what the International Tennis Hall of Fame has to say about Mrs Margaret Court, “For sheer strength of performance and accomplishment there has never been a tennis player to match her.”

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Leander Paes has announced that he will be hanging up his tennis racquet at the end of this year. I have now been writing sports articles for The Teenager Today for more than thirty-six years but somehow Leander Adrian Paes inadvertently never found a place in my writing. The reason, perhaps, is twofold; first, in my younger days, the pair of Premjit Lal and Jaideep Mukherjea and later the Amritraj brothers — Anand and Vijay — were the more talked of players when the Davis Cup matches were played, secondly, when the Grand Slam events were conducted, it was the single players who stole the limelight. However, as the age-old proverb goes, it is ‘Better late than never’.

An individual who over three decades won 18 Grand Slam titles, 44 Davis Cup doubles matches and a bronze medal in the singles event at the Olympic Games and that too some of them after overcoming a brain tumour operation must definitely rank not only among the greatest tennis doubles players but also a ‘lion hearted’ fighter. In fact, that is exactly what the word Leander means – The Lion Hearted.

As a junior, Leander Paes came into limelight by winning the Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles but he achieved nothing noteworthy in the singles of the Grand Slam events in the men’s events though he did win some important singles matches in the Davis Cup matches. Leander, however, won two ATP singles titles in his career, the better known being the one where he beat Pete Sampras in the finals in straight sets.

The pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi created a furore when in 1999, they entered the finals of all the four Grand Slam events and won two of them, consequently securing the top doubles ATP ranking from where Leader has slipped out of the top 100 today. The year 1999 also saw Leander win the Wimbledon mixed doubles titles in partnership with Lisa Raymond, to achieve a rare double of doubles.

After a record 24 consecutive doubles victories in the Davis Cup, for some undisclosed reason, the pair of Leander and Mahesh fell apart. However, Leander continued to hit the headlines time and again with different partners. Unique as it may appear, during his career, Leander has partnered more than 100 men in different doubles events and more than 25 ladies in the mixed double events. His eight men’s Grand Slam doubles titles and ten mixed doubles Grand Slam titles over a spread of three decades are a testimony to his endurance, fitness, consistency and adjustability as a doubles player. In fact, no other player in the history of the game, other than Rod Laver and Leander, has won Grand Slam titles over three decades.

In 2002, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes paired to win the gold medal at the Asian Games. Having recovered from brain surgery, Leander led the Indian tennis team at the Doha Asian Games in 2006 and won a gold medal in the men’s doubles with Bhupathi and a mixed doubles gold medal with Sania Mirza.

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Never since Nadia Comaneci did a perfect ten on the Balancing Beam at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games has any Romanian sports personality earned the same adulation from the spectators as did Simona Halep at the Centre Court of the All England Club, in south-west London, this year. It definitely wasn’t the 27-year-old’s first Grand Slam title as she had the French Open title of 2018 under her belt but it was the manner in which she tamed the ferocious Serena Williams that amazed all and sundry.

In defeating Serena, Simona not only deprived her ten-year senior from emulating the legendary Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam titles but with just three unforced errors against her name during the 56-minute contest, Simona went on to record the least number of unforced errors by any individual in any Grand Slam finals; succinctly, she played a near perfect tennis to which Serena had no answer.

For years together, Serena’s serves have been arguably her most potent weapon but Simona seemed to have mastered the art of nullifying the edge that the serve provides to any player during a game of tennis. The final score of 6-2, 6-2 in favour of Simona sums up the domination that she enjoyed over the entire contest against Serena. It was also not the first time that Simona had made such a short work of Serena. Once in an earlier tournament she had humbled Serena with a score of 6-0, 6-2 but at Wimbledon, it was a more elevated platform.

Simona Halep may not be a big name in Grand Slams but with 19 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) titles and 6 International Tennis Federation (ITF) titles, she is at the tenth place on the all-time list of women tennis players who have held the number one ranking for the longest period; it being 64 weeks in the case of Simona. In fact, in 2017, she had held on to the top position for a continuous period of 48 weeks.

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