Samir Banerjee raised the possibility that India’s search for a promising men’s singles player may have an answer.
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Samir Banerjee, 17, caused a stir when he became the first Indo-American player to win a men’s Grand Slam singles title, beating compatriot Viktor Lilov 7-5, 6-3 in one hour and 21 minutes in the final at the Wimbledon Championships Sunday.
Banerjee suffered a wobble serving for the first set at 5-3 and lost his serve, allowing Viktor to tie the score at 5-5. However, he regrouped and won the next two games to pocket the first set. He raced again in the second set, breaking his opponent’s serve in Game 6 to take a 4-2 lead.
Lilov fought back in the next match, giving hope for another fight, but Samir didn’t give him that opportunity and sealed the victory by winning the next match.
There has been no shortage of Indian names in the honor roll of men’s singles champions at Wimbledon – Ramanathan Krishnan, Ramesh Krishnan, Leander Paes and Yuki Bhambri – with Sr Krishnan still holding the best record for an Indian in men’s singles at Big W with an appearance in the semi-finals.
At the Junior French Open last month, Banerjee, ranked 19th in the world until Wimbledon, crashed in the first round. Her parents moved to the United States in the 1980s.
Bhambri was the last Indian to win a junior singles title when he triumphed at the Australian Open in 2009, while Sumit Nagal won the boys’ doubles at Wimbledon in 2015 with Vietnamese Ly Hoang Nam.
Although Indo-American players like Prakash Amritraj and his cousin Stephen Amritraj have played on the tour and won some titles, Samir is the first to win the boys’ singles title in a Grand Slam.
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