A CENTURY OF INDIAN TENNIS By P.K. Datta, Publications Division, Rs 180 Diligent research spanning several years has enabled retired bureaucrat P.K. Datta to produce a comprehensive history of Indian tennis. Datta, a tennis aficianado, took more than two years to write this book. The highlights of this pioneering book are the little nuggets of information about and the socio-cultural background of Indian tennis in the early decades of the 20th century. For instance, the author reveals that India's association with Olympic tennis goes back to 1924 and that S.M. Jacob reached the men's singles quarter finals, and S.M. Hadi and D. Rutnam reached the men's doubles quarter finals. Nihal Singh was the first Indian to play in a men's event at Wimbledon in 1908 and Jenny Sanderson was the first woman of Indian origin to play there in 1929. Datta points out that tennis, like so many other sports in India, was popularized by the British Indian army and civilian officers in the last quarter of the 19th century. The first tournament to be held in India was the Punjab lawn tennis championship which was held at the the Gymkhana Club in Lahore way back in 1885. Two years later, the Bengal lawn tennis championships were started in Calcutta. The first Indian to win a title was Mohammed Saleem of Lahore who won the Punjab championship in 1915 and N.S. Iyer, who became the first Indian to bag the Bengal tennis championship in Calcutta in 1917. The fascinating chapter on India's performance in the Davis Cup from 1921 to 2001 is worth reading. It is interesting to note that in the Twenties, India scored upsetting wins in the Davis Cup, beating France in 1921, Romania in 1922, Spain in 1927 and other European nations. The author further discloses that L.S. Deane, who played in the first ever Davis Cup, was a British railway officer while Cotah Ramaswami and S.M. Hadi were Cambridge University Blues and Krishna Prasad was an Oxford University Blue. Moreover, most of the players represented the upperclasses of Indian society. In another fascinating chapter, the author traces the development of women's tennis in India. He reveals how in the initial years, tennis was largely restricted to British women because of the prevailing conservative attitudes and dress restrictions. Anglo-Indian girls like Jenny Sandison popularized women's tennis in India. Leela Row was the first Indian girl from an orthodox family to appear in short skirts. She was a remarkable all-rounder with a career that spanned for two decades. Khanum Haji of Bombay won the first national championship for women which was started in 1946. This chapter deals with women's tennis in India from its modest beginnings to the era of the first professional, Nirupama Vaidyanathan. The book also provides readers with a socio-historical perspective on the changing attitudes towards women in India in the last century. Datta also provides information about all the great foreigners who have played in India and have even won the national championship. The list includes the names of legends like Roy Emerson, Ilie Nastase, Tom Gorman, P.C. Todd and 'Gorgeous' Gussy Moran. Rare photographs of legends like Urmilla Thapar, members of the Indian Davis Cup squad in 1932 and current stars like Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi make the book invaluable. The book is divided into seven sections. The last section provides a detailed biographical sketch of all the great men and women of Indian tennis, from S.M. Jacob, E.V. Bobb to Ramanthan Krishnan, Vijay Amrithraj, Paes and Uzma Khan. There are also chapters on the rules of the game, court dimensions, world stars, origin of tennis and on Wimbledon.