The National Lawn Tennis Championships of India , originally called the All India Championships , or the All India Lawn Tennis Championships and the Indian National Championships , was a combined (men's and women's) tennis tournament. It was played from 1910 until 1999. It was held in various cities in, India and was played outdoor on multiple surfaces, but mainly grass courts .
24-642: Ramanathan Krishnan won most men's singles championships with eight titles overall, and, during the pre- Open era Jenny Sandison and Leela Row won the most women's singles championships with seven titles each, while Nirupama Mankad won the most titles during the open era with five titles. Lawn tennis in India can be traced back within the first decade of the establishment of the Wimbledon championships with early local championships being established in places like Punjab (1885) and Calcutta (1887). However, there
48-560: A gas distribution agency. Ramesh Krishnan emulated his father's achievement of winning the Wimbledon junior title, and went on to become a leading Indian tennis player in the 1980s. On 25 July 2012, Ramanathan Krishnan re-launched India's premier English-language weekly sports magazine, Sportstar , at a function in Chennai. Krishnan runs a tennis training center in Chennai together with his son. Patricio Rodr%C3%ADguez Patricio (Pato) Rodríguez (20 December 1938 — 23 June 2020)
72-512: A much smaller guarantee than Krishnan had been offered. Krishnan won the 1961 Wiesbaden tennis tournament, including a win over Wilhelm Bungert . In 1961, Krishnan again reached the Wimbledon semi-finals by beating Emerson in straight sets in the quarter-finals but lost in the semis to eventual champion Laver. The following season, he reached the quarterfinals at the French Open in 1962, where he led Emerson two sets to one, but strangely lost
96-521: A registered professional with a national tennis association. He was under contract to his national tennis association, and not to an independent professional tour, and was therefore eligible to represent India in Davis Cup competition, but also received money earnings in designated tournaments approved by his national association. Krishnan won the Canadian Open in 1968 over Torben Ulrich in
120-457: A win over Jürgen Fassbender . After 1968, Krishnan played sporadically. Krishnan's last tournament was a first round loss at Calcutta in 1975 to Tom Gorman. Krishnan was a key member of the Indian team. In 1961, Krishnan had singles wins over both Chuck McKinley (Wimbledon finalist in 1961) and Whitney Reed (U.S. No. 1 for 1961), although India lost the tie 3 to 2. Krishnan led the India team to
144-401: The 1966 Davis Cup against Australia and was the non playing captain when Vijay Amritraj and Anand Amritraj led India into the 1974 Davis Cup finals against South Africa. He was active from 1953 to 1975 and won 69 singles titles. Krishnan honed his skills under his father, T. K. Ramanathan, a veteran Nagercoil based player. He soon made his mark on the national circuit, sweeping all
168-686: The Arjuna award in 1961, the Padma Shri in 1962 and the Padma Bhushan in 1967. Krishnan has written, with his son Ramesh Krishnan and Nirmal Shekar, a book titled A touch of tennis: The story of a tennis family . The book covering the achievements of three generations of tennis-playing Krishnans, was released by Penguin Books India. Krishnan now lives in Chennai , where he manages
192-508: The Brazilian champion, Thomaz Koch . Koch was leading two sets to one and was up 5–2 in the fourth set when Krishnan staged one of the most memorable comebacks by winning the set 7–5 and then the match. In the final against Australia, Krishnan and Jaidip Mukerjea won the doubles rubber (against John Newcombe and Tony Roche ), but Krishnan lost both singles matches (against Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson) as India were defeated 4–1. Krishnan
216-564: The Challenge Round of the Davis Cup in 1966, whilst also reaching the Inter-Zonal final with the team on five other occasions, in 1956, 1959, 1962, 1963 and 1968. India surprised West Germany in the inter-zonal semi-finals with Krishnan beating Wilhelm Bungert (a Wimbledon finalist later that year). At Calcutta , in the semi-finals against Brazil, the two sides won two matches each and it all came down to Krishnan's match against
240-539: The India Lawn Tennis Association. After World War 2 until the start of the open era, the event was often held over Christmas and new year and on a few occasions two events were held in a single year in January and December (sometimes winners are described as winning in a year in which an event started in late December, other times in the year the event finished in early January). The tournament
264-660: The Northern Lawn Tennis Championships tournament in 1958, which included a close match win over Rod Laver . The same year he also won the Aix-Les-Bains International Tournament against Patricio Rodríguez . In 1959, Krishnan won the Queen's Club Championships title, defeating both Alex Olmedo and Neale Fraser in the final two rounds. He played in the men's singles competition at the 1959 Wimbledon losing in
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#1732765189249288-455: The duration of its run they included: Included: Ramanathan Krishnan Ramanathan Krishnan (born 11 April 1937) is a retired tennis player from India who was among the world's leading players in the 1950s and 1960s. He was twice a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 1960 and 1961 , reaching as high as World No. 3 in Potter's amateur rankings. He led India to the Challenge Round of
312-424: The fifth set at love. Krishnan received his highest seeding at Wimbledon at No. 4 in 1962 but had to withdraw after three matches due to an ongoing ankle injury. Krishnan won the 1963 Antwerp International Championships tournament on red clay with a four-set win in the final over Nicola Pietrangeli . Krishnan won the 1965 River Oaks International Tennis Tournament at Houston, Texas with wins over Osuna, Emerson in
336-479: The final. Krishnan lost to John Newcombe at the inaugural U.S. Open that year. However, Krishnan had a notable win over the hard-hitting Clark Graebner , a semifinalist at the 1968 U.S. Open, in Davis Cup play later that season, in which Graebner "was completely befuddled by the junk-balling tactics of Krishnan...losing decisively." Also that year, Krishnan won the Stuttgart tournament on red clay, which included
360-691: The first Asian player to win the boys' singles title at Wimbledon, beating Ashley Cooper in the final. In 1957, Krishnan reached the singles final at the Northern Lawn Tennis Championships at Manchester, defeating Roy Emerson and Robert Bédard , but losing the final to Lew Hoad in straight sets. Krishnan reached the final at the Canadian Open in 1957, losing a close final to Bédard, whom Krishnan had beaten several times in Britain that season. Krishnan would win
384-571: The junior titles. He as a 13-year-old school student sought and got special permission from the Principal Gordon of Loyola College to take part in the Bertram Tournament open only to college students and won it in 1951. Krishnan qualified for 1953 Wimbledon and reached final of Boys' singles title losing to Billy Knight . Later he joined and as a student of Loyola College won Junior Wimbledon in 1954. In 1954, he became
408-713: The semi-final in four sets, and Richey in the final in four sets. He was reportedly given a winner's hug of congratulations by future President George H. W. Bush after the victory. In 1967 Krishnan won the Antwerp International Championships on red clay a second time by beating Emerson in the final in three straight sets. He won the National Lawn Tennis Championships of India a record eight times, and reached ten finals. Krishnan, like Emerson, Stolle, Santana, Okker and other prominent "amateur" tennis players, became
432-509: The semifinal and Whitney Reed in three straight sets in the final. Krishnan ranked World No. 3 in Potter's annual rankings for 1959 in World Tennis . These performances gained Krishnan seventh seeded status at Wimbledon in 1960, where he reached the semi-finals losing to the eventual champion Fraser. Krishnan defeated Andrés Gimeno in five sets on his way to the semifinal. Instead of Krishnan, Kramer signed Gimeno after Wimbledon for
456-518: The third round to Olmedo. Krishnan rejected a record three-year $ 150,000 guarantee offer from Jack Kramer in 1959 after winning at Queen's Club. Later that same year, playing for India in the Davis Cup, Krishnan defeated Laver (the Wimbledon runner-up) in four sets. Krishnan also defeated Laver at the 1959 Pacific Southwest tournament in three straight sets. Krishnan won the 1959 U.S. Hard Court Championships in Denver with wins over Gardnar Mulloy in
480-650: Was a professional tennis player from Chile. He was active from 1956 until 1979 and won 25 career singles titles. In addition he won 2 doubles titles. Rodríguez was born in Santiago, Chile . In 1956 he played his first tournament at the South American Championships. In 1959 he won his first title at the Bad Neuenahr Open at Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler , Germany . He also played in tennis Grand Slams and competed for his country in
504-519: Was a regular player on the Indian Davis Cup team between 1953 and 1975, compiling a 69–28 winning record (50–19 in singles and 19–9 in doubles). Krishnan's playing style was known as "touch tennis". Critics hailed Krishnan as a marvel, Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph described his tennis as "pure oriental charm" while another described his style as "Eastern magic". More recently, Robert Philip wrote that "each and every Krishnan rally
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#1732765189249528-434: Was a thing of rare beauty". According to veteran sports journalist C.V. Narsimhan, "His service was never a powerful weapon, he did not have any powerful groundstrokes either. He won with consistency, angled volleys, and a graceful half volley drop shot now and then". Rafael Osuna , Nicola Pietrangeli and Krishnan's son Ramesh were some of the other notable exponents of this style, emphasizing finesse. Krishnan received
552-514: Was hosted at different cities around India and was also played on different surfaces, such as grass courts (1910–59, 1964–66, 1969, 1970, 1973), hard courts (1967) and clay courts (1960–61, 1974–79). This tournament was also held in conjunction with the Northern India Championships for the years 1962 to 1967. In the open era the event became a minor event for Indian players. The tournament was staged in different cities for
576-864: Was no national championships, in 1910 colonial officers of the British Raj established the All India Lawn Tennis Championships in Allahabad which was 10 years before the All India Tennis Association was founded. The championships staged both men's and women's singles play and also doubles. In 1946, the All-India Championships tournament was renamed the National Lawn Tennis Championships of India by
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