KG Ramesh Coimbatore Tennis National Champion

The treatment meted out to two Coimbatore cricketers in the 1960s and 70s led them to keeping their next gen away from cricket. KS Ganapathy and KS Vaidyanathan had been hopeful of more opportunities on the cricket field but their experience over a long period of time gave them a feel that in a team game opportunities depend on a number of external factors outside the control of the players, and a lot of runs and wickets may not necessarily hand them a place in the XI. Added to their own experience was the way another Coimbatorean cricketer, PR Ramakrishnan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/10/pr-ramakrishnan-coimbatore-cricketer.html), who succeeded Vaidy into the TN team, was handled in the first half of the 1970s. As seen in the story earlier this week, despite a run of strong scores, Ramki was never given a chance to figure in the playing XI and sat out for four years in the state squad. Ganapathy, who too had good scores at the University level kept his elder son KG Ramesh away from cricket and initiated him very early on into Tennis, a sport that was not necessarily popular in Coimbatore. While Ramesh’s classmates and neighbours grew up playing cricket, he was handed a tennis racquet and let to the clay courts in Coimbatore. By the late 1980s, Ramesh went to the top of the chart in India staying the top National Player for over 5 years, a commendable achievement for someone coming from Coimbatore. In the last decade, he has launched a tennis academy in the outskirts of Coimbatore to try and create the next generation of Tennis Stars. Here is the story of the man who was a mentor to an entire generation of tennis players in Coimbatore.

KG Ramesh was born into a cricketing family. His father KS Ganapathy performed well at the University level. His uncle KS Vaidyanathan played Ranji Trophy matches for TN but his career met with a premature end.  Both were frustrated with cricket in the way they were treated and were of the view that their children should play individual sport where they could chalk out their own success path. But like any school boy of that period, Ramesh was a cricket fanatic. While Tennis Ball with his classmates at Mani High School was a regular feature, playing Tennis was not on his wish list. Also, unlike cricket that was promoted at school, tennis was not a sport that educational institutions promoted at that time in the 1970s and 80s.

Ganapathy was a member at the Coimbatore club and he and Vaidy had moved on to playing tennis after their cricketing days. To keep Ramesh away from cricket, Ganapathy would take his son to the club immediately after the school hours. He was also put under the coaching of Ramdas at the Ladies Club. Ilayas Hussain’s appa, who was the Principal of The Forest College, created the tennis courts there in the 1960s. Interestingly while the first division matches would be played at the Forest College cricket ground, Ramesh was quietly taken by his appa to the tennis court at the North end of the ground without him even getting a glance of the cricket match, such had become his appa's aversion to cricket.

At that early stage in his life, he idolized Bjorn Borg. He once played against Ramanathan Krishnan in Coimbatore as a young boy and cannot forget that experience for life “I have never seen anyone like him. His ball control was simply amazing and his strokes would never go out of court.”

 As a young boy, he played for fun. He recalls the strict fitness regime his appa put him through“Fitness was not a big focus in those days but my appa who knew its importance having played cricket and tennis for many years, would ask me to run rounds around the GCT, every morning, to gain stamina and while I did not particularly like it at that time as a young boy, I realised its value when I had to play many hours to win a clay court match.”

By the time he was 14, he had already won the State Tourney, quite a big achievement for a boy coming from this Tier Two City. He swept most of the local tournaments played within TN (U14/U16) in all age groups. Aged 16, he reached the final of the U18 tournament in Madras. And a year later, he won the U18 tournament. 

In the 1980s, most of the tennis tournaments happened in the big cities – Madras, Bangalore and Bombay and that was a big disadvantage for those like him. “One did not get to play in big tournaments in Coimbatore and to play in competitive league, I had to constantly travel to the bigger cities. There was not a professional structure here. That was an early challenge coming from Coimbatore” recalls Ramesh of his growing up years in Tennis.

Hailing from the sporting family, he had an advantage. His appa did not force him into academics and gave him the freedom to express himself in Tennis. His uncle, Vaidyanathan was a big source of motivation in Tennis. His appa ran a foundries business and was keen on his son taking to Engineering. While Ramesh did not get an Engineering seat soon after his Class XII exams (he did B.Sc Physics for a year), he did join CIT a year later. Interestingly, to be India Cricketer VB Chandrasekar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/01/vb-chandrasekar.html) was his classmate at CIT for four years.

His personal coach Ramdas was also the Physical Director at CIT and that helped in terms of his pursuing his Tennis interest for the coach motivated him constantly through his late teens. Like PR Ramakrishnan, Ramesh too travelled a lot during his college days and it was his friends who helped him with his academics when he returned to Coimbatore, closer to the exam. 

In that college phase from 1982-86, he played a lot of tennis across the country. In the All India circuit, he won the Championship held in Kota (Rajasthan). He came to be ranked in the Top 10 in India in U18. In 1985, in the third year of his college, he won a lot of All India tournaments including beating Enrico Piperno in one of them. He also won the TN and SZ championships. A big moment for him was representing India in the Asian Games in Seoul in 1986. 

To those like Nirupama Vaidyanathan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/05/nirupama-vaidyanathan.html) growing up as a tennis star in the late 1980s and early 90s, KG Ramesh was a role model. “KG Ramesh was a legend to all of us in Coimbatore. He was the first guy out of a mofussil centre like Coimbatore beating everyone from bigger cities including Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. So he showed us the way. His game style was so solid.  He never missed and was quick and he had power. Overall, it was very tough to play against him on clay. He gave us the pathway and the belief. He was the benchmark and the role model for us”, US based Nirupama told this writer. 

He was doing well in Tennis in that phase and credit to his appa that he gave Ramesh the freedom to purse the sport even after his Engineering degree. His amma travelled him with him for the local tournaments in the early phase of his career and played a stellar role in his development as a sportsman. 

In 1987, the Indian Railways were recruiting players ahead of the World Railway Games. He was ranked in the Top four in India at that time and they handed him an offer as a Mechanical Engineer to work at the S & T Workshop in Podanur. For the very first time, he helped the Indian Railways with a World Championship winning both the individual and the team tournament. 

Soon after, he began to travel to Belgium and other European countries to play in the circuit there. His practice mate from Coimbatore, Elango, was in Europe at that time and Ramesh stayed with him in an effort to reduce the expenses “Playing in the clay courts of Europe helped me with my consistency. It was highly competitive from round 1 and each match would last 2-3 hours. Both physical and mental strength were required to come through those tournaments. It was great learning for me in that phase” says Ramesh of what the European circuit meant to him.

While the matches were enjoyable, there were big financial challenges.  Expanding into the global circuit required huge financial investment. "There were no sponsors from India. Even racquets were not sponsored and I had to pay for every racquet in that phase. I won a number of matches but soon I would run out of finances. The money I had could sustain me only for three months and I had to return to India to play in tournaments here. I won win a few tournaments and with that prize money headed back to satellites and challengers in overseas locations including in Malaysia.”

Between 1987 and 93, he was ranked Number 1 in India. He beat an upcoming Leander Paes and Vasudevan and lost to Ramesh Krishnan in the Indian Open. 

Ramesh recalls the words of his appa after his semi final victory “Beating Leander is fine but do not sit on your laurels. I want you to beat Ramesh (Krishnan) the next day. Such was my appa's competitive spirit. He always egged me to give my best in everything I did in life.”

During this period, Ramesh served as the mentor to Nirupama when she was growing up in Tennis. It was he who taught her the importance of consistency in rallies. “I would hit a hundred balls and ask her to miss a single rally. She had a killer instinct and never gave up in match situations.”

His to be father in law, a dermatologist in Coimbatore, was a big Tennis fan and very passionate about the game in those decades.He had tracked the growth of KG Ramesh in Tennis. Interestingly, he was keen on a Tennis star for his daughter. "It was my Tennis success that won me my wife", laughs Ramesh. 

Ramesh also managed to get into the Top 500 in the ATP rankings.  He was on the wrong side of the 20s when Vijay Amritraj and Ramesh Krishnan retired. Having been ranked No. 1 here, he was hopeful of gaining a place in the Davis Cup team, something that had remained his dream after he took to serious Tennis but with an eye on the future, youngsters Gaurav Natekar and Ismail were chosen ahead of him. He won the World Railways Championship once again in 1995 (he had also won in 1991) and with the possibility of a Davis Cup inclusion becoming bleak, he called it quits that year. Two decades later, he got back to Tennis playing for India at Helsinki in the Seniors World Championship.

He counts the World Railways Championship wins as the best of his Tennis life along with reaching the Indian Open Final. He also won the mixed doubles title with Nirupama Vaidyanathan at the SAF Games.

His brother KG Suresh too was into Tennis early on but quit early to focus on academics (M Tech - IIT Madras) and later on his business. Ramesh's son too started out with Tennis and made good progress till the U18 level including being in the Top 4 before he too took to academics and went to Swedan for his Masters.

His wife, Lakshmi, a classical singer, was the inspiration for him to get back into Tennis, this time in the form of Coaching. After 14 years of running the foundries business, he launched his own Tennis Academy (KG Ramesh Academy) in 2016 near the Coimbatore airport. 150 kids were part of the academy till Pandemic struck early last year. In the four years leading to 2020, he had organised several AITA ranking tournaments in Coimbatore as well as one annual tournament in the first week of January in memory of his appa (KS Ganapathy Memorial Tournament). 

While there are six coaches at the academy, Ramesh is personally involved practicing in the courts and playing long rallies with the talented kids. He believes that Tennis can be a sport for life “While you can be aggressive in your youth, later on in life, Tennis can provide a lot of fun. It is also a stress reliever and helps a lot in your fitness. Mentally it can relax you.”

Playing Tennis has taught him big lessons for Life. “Its taught me to take  everything -wins and losses - in my stride.” 

His wife endorses the balance that Tennis has brought into his life“In the last three decades, I have not once seen him angry including with the kids at coaching. He is always considerate including in not collecting fees from the under privileged.”

It was not easy for those from the Districts to make it big in sport as KS Vaidyanathan and PR Ramakrishnan found out in Cricket. It was even more of a challenge in Tennis but KG Ramesh proved to be a benchmark for others from the Districts to emulate for he managed to reach the top of the Indian Tennis Circuit in the late 80s and early 90s. At a time when there were not much exposure in Tier Two cities in Tamil Nadu, Ramesh fought against the odds and managed to carve a niche for himself as a clay court specialist to reach the top of the Indian circuit. With his positive attitude, on and off the court, he also served as a Role Model for the Next Generation of Tennis Stars from Coimbatore. With the Pandemic behind us, Ramesh is now looking to reopen the Tennis Academy in an effort to not just create new Tennis Stars from Coimbatore but also to train them on Character Building so they can face every challenge in life with a SMILE, that has been so symbolic of Ramesh as a personality all through his life.