India’s newly appointed Davis Cup coach Ashutosh Singh hailed Manas Dhamne, saying the youngster could be Indian tennis’ ‘Mr Dependable’.
Ashutosh, who replaced Zeeshan Ali as the India coach, is impressed with the teenager’s diligent approach and workmanlike attitude.
Ashutosh has been closely watching Dhamne since his days in Malegaon. Dhamne has recently visited Stockholm, where India competed in the Davis Cup Group I tie against Sweden.
“Manas is a quintessential hard worker with a workman-like attitude,” said Ashutosh, a former tennis player.
“He just makes eye contact and nods ‘ok’ for any on-court work he’s asked to do. He has potential to become the Mr Dependable in singles that Indian tennis has long been searching for,” remarked Ashutosh.
16-year-old Dhamne did not get to play a match but was part of the squad that travelled to Stockholm along with another youngster, Aryan Shah.
Dhamne and Shah travelled with the Indian team and gained valuable experience.
India lost the tie to Sweden 0-4. Coach Ashutosh chose to see a silver lining in the forgettable outing in Sweden.
‘Need careful supervision’
“Of course it’s miles to go but the road he’s taken looks possible with his diligent approach. One has to keep in mind that Manas is only 16 and does need careful supervision in certain aspects of his workload management but it seems he’s in experienced hands at his training base in Italy,” added Ashutosh.
India now have only one player in the top-100, with Sumit Nagal ranked 83rd, and the next best is Ramkumar Ramanathan, way behind at number 309, followed by Sasi Kumar Mukund (365). All others are outside the top-500 bracket.
Dhamne, who trained initially in Pune, left for Italy to train with renowned coach Riccardo Piatti at the Piatti Tennis Center in Bordighera.
Dhamne made a quick impact as he won the men’s singles titles at the ITF Asia-Oceania Junior (Under-18) championships in 2022, becoming the youngest Indian to win the prestigious event at the age of 14 years and nine months.
In 2023, he was given a wild card by the MSLTA for the Tata Open Maharashtra, the ATP250 event, and again he impressed with his baseline game and range of strokes against American Mihale Mmoh, who was ranked 113 then.
In the season 2024, Dhamne has consistently competed on the ITF Men’s Tour. He has not yet broken into top-1000 but already has wins over Nicholas David Ionel (378) Japanese veteran Tatsuma Ito (top-60 a few years back) and Romania’s Vlad Dancu (ranked 565).
‘Aryan is a quick learner’
Ashutosh is also optimistic about Aryan.
“Aryan is hard working and a quick learner with an enterprising head on his shoulders. Being inquisitive is a good indication of the eagerness of a young mind to learn, Aryan definitely checks that box,” said Ashutosh.
“Alongside Manas, he brings much-needed unbridled energy of youth into the team. Having played all four junior grand slams in singles, he has foundation of top tier exposure to firmly understand the points of his game he needs to work on,” he added.