Exclusive: 'There are challenges', Somdev Devvarman on First Sports show regarding problems that tennis players face

A day after India’s top tennis player Sumit Nagal opened up on his financial struggles , former star Somdev Devvarman echoed his thoughts on the issue, saying that he himself faced a lot of challenges during his tennis journey, and that it never gets easier to progress. Somdev was speaking exclusively to Rupha Ramani on Firstpost’s brand new sports show First Sports. “It was incredibly hard. Junior circuit is not the easiest place to make that breakthrough. But, it doesn’t get easier as you take the steps forward. It only gets harder. And, I think that’s true with every sport. I found a number of different challenges,” said Somdev.

“One is obviously the training, the guidance, the coaching, what were the logical steps to take, how do you plan a career out, let alone plan a season. The key question is, ‘what do you need to do now to improve, to put up better performances’,” the 38-year-old added. On Wednesday, Sumit Nagal, ranked 159th in the world, revealed that he was living his life with just 900 euros in his bank account, which is roughly Rs 80,000. Nagal has been training in Germany at the Nansel Tennis Academy, but had not been able to train there during the first three months of the 2023 season due to lack of funds. Somdev, who is a close friend of Nagal, and Christopher Marcuis, another friend, helped him financially in January and February, before managing to get funds for his stay in Germany. “Along with that, there were financial issues. Trying to play global tennis tournaments, coming from India, it’s not the easiest things in the world. But, at the end of the day, that’s the challenge most athletes in most sports have,” added Somdev. On Thursday, Nagal, 26, received support from energy drink company Gatorade, as well as the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA). While the DLTA has promised Rs five lakh to be deposited in Nagal’s bank account, Gatorade, whose parent company is PepsiCo, announced a sponsorship with the athlete on a three year basis. Meanwhile, Devvarman discussed the importance of how much his family supported him in taking a decision regarding his tennis career. “Family plays a huge part. It was different for me, because my parents recognised pretty early on that there were not experts when it came to taking decisions on tennis. I think they wanted to put me on the right path, and hopefully I would be mature enough, or be surrounded by the right people, so that we could start making decisions on my career, profession, whatever it was. “The one thing that most success stories of athletes happen because of massive support system in the family. There are different challenges, but that being said, my family has been super supportive, were so even before I started my tennis career,” said the former Commonwealth Games men’s singles champion.