(Clockwise from top left) Danielle, Karan, Treta and Veer relax after a training stint. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

When Pat Cash scrambled up the steps of the Centre Court grandstand to share his moment of Wimbledon glory with his folks back in 1987, Treta Bhattacharyya and Danielle Jones weren?t even born.

Nonetheless, weaned on dollops of lore on the feisty Aussie, they can?t wait to meet Cash in person and hit a few balls with him as well. The two 13-year-old city girls, along with court pals Karan and Veer Dhillon, are flying out to Hope Island, Queensland, next week for a two-month stint at the Pat Cash Tennis Academy.

?The primary concern of parents and coaches alike is how to manage time and fit in enough tennis and fitness training for the kids without hampering studies,? observes Gary O?Brien. The city-based tennis coach picked the Cash clinic programme for his wards from a clutch of other options ?because it addresses the ticklish time management issue better?.

The foursome will train six hours a day for six days a week, with Sunday as the optional day off. The 36 hours of tennis every week will be split into 12 hours each of technique, tactics and matchplay, with a lot of time reserved for video analysis of different match situations.

Fitness drills would include speed and power training, coordination, yoga and pilates ? a structured sequence of muscle toning to enhance endurance and performance.

?Pat is pretty much hands on and spends a lot of time with the trainees on court, working in tandem with programme director Andy Brothers,? says O?Brien.

And the youngsters are eager to Cash in. ?I want to make my game sharper and hope to improve the tactical aspect through the exposure,? says 16-year-old Karan, a Class XI student at La Martiniere for Boys. Kid brother Veer, two years younger, is looking to build his ?overall game? at the Queensland academy.

Danielle, ranked number four in the country in her age group after just three years of tennis, is pining for the ?greater variety in training methods? at the Cash clinic, and like the brothers Dhillon, has been granted special leave by her school, CIS.

Friend Treta doesn?t have to worry about straitjacketed school hours though. To cope with the exacting demands of serious tennis, her parents have taken her off regular school (she went to Our Lady Queen of the Mission) and put her on a correspondence course. She now studies online at the Calvert School in Baltimore, Maryland.

O?Brien, who is accompanying his proteges Down Under to ?ensure continuity? once they are back, hopes to pick up critical inputs on balancing studies and tennis from the two-month programme. ?I will also talk to the academy for a possible tie-up, which could lead to Pat coming here occasionally and our kids going there on an exchange programme,? he says.

Gary O?Brien Sports Pvt Ltd will organise four state-level tournaments every year and one promising youngster, picked from those meets with the help of Nandan Bal, will be sent to the Pat Cash Tennis Academy on a sponsored trip.

The agency, which hopes to send around 10 kids to the Hope Island programme next year, plans to approach the Bengal Tennis Association for assistance.

?The expenditure on each child is Rs 2.6 lakh, all inclusive. Even if a small part is met by the state body through sponsorships, it?s a huge help,? says the coach.