Nitin Kirtane at the Chachal tennis ground on Monday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Being away from the sport he loves best for over a year, veteran player Nitin Kirtane is trying to make a comeback to competitive tennis through the National Games.

Surviving the threat of paralysis, the former national champion and Asian Games medallist was out of action for quite some time after he sustained severe injuries on his right arm in a road accident in 2005.

Speaking to The Telegraph at the newly-built All Assam Tennis Association complex at Chachal, Kirtane said, “The last couple of years were bad for me. After the road accident in 2005, I had to undergo surgery on my left leg last year. Now I am working really hard to make it to the national circuit”. “We have a formidable side and hope to do well in the National Games. Tomorrow, we have a tough match against Tamil Nadu,” the Maharashtra captain said.

Kirtane will be seen in action along with teammate Aditya Madkekar against Tamil Nadu in the men’s doubles pre-summit round tomorrow.

Maharashtra had it comparatively easy today, registering a 2-0 win over Andhra Pradesh in the quarterfinals. Maharashtra’s Arjun Gautam breezed past Vivek Reddy 6-0, 6-0, before Aditya Madkekar defeated Vinay Kamineni 6-1, 6-1, to take their team into the last four.

On what motivated him to take part in the Games, the former Davis Cupper, who is in his early 30s, said, “The idea of representing my state is enough motivation for me to play in any event. It is an honour to play for either the country or one’s state. It’s always good to make a comeback as well.”

The left-hander from Pune has been a prowler in the National circuit for years and even today, it seems like not much has changed for him. He remains as keen as he was before. Maharashtra had won four back-to-back National Games titles till they were overthrown by Delhi in Hyderabad in 2002.

Apart from Maharashtra, the others who qualified for the semis were defending champions Delhi, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Delhi beat Chandigarh, while West Bengal and Tamil Nadu defeated hosts Assam and Punjab respectively to move into the semifinals.

Bengal pipped Assam 2-1. Cheered on by the home crowd, Assam’s Chandrasekhar Mohanty gave his team a good start with a convincing 0-6 6-2 6-3 win against Vinod Sewa of Bengal.

However, Vinod’s brother Monoj brought Bengal on an even keel with Assam by defeating Anshuman Dutta 6-4, 6-3.

The deciding doubles encounter saw the Sewa brothers steamroll Chandresekhar and Ranjit Dutta of Assam to reach the semis.

On India’s latest Davis Cup loss to Uzbekistan, Kirtane said, “It is always tough to beat Uzbeks on their home ground and we have a young team. But I feel we can still do better.”

Three times men’s national champion, Kirtane was also a member of the Indian Davis Cup team in 1997 and 2001.

“The silver lining for Indian tennis is that we have five or six promising youngsters in Karan Rastogi, Vivek Shokeen, Sunil Kumar, Aditya Madkekar and Purav Raja, among others,” he said. “The youngsters are doing a good job but it is very important for them to do well consistently throughout the year to improve their rankings,” Kirtane added.

Besides being a pro, Kirtane has also been playing coach at Deccan Gymkhana and Poona Club at Pune for the last three years.

“I just decided to take a break and started a bit of coaching. Now I want to attain a perfect balance between coaching and playing,” the 1998 Asian Games tennis bronze medallist said.His cousin Sandeep Kirtane, a former international, is coach of the Maharashtra team.

Praising the organisers of the Games, he said the facilities at Guwahati were among the best.