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Anand Moorthy, Founder and CEO, Props AMC has been a sports person all his life. He says he prefers playing more than watching sport. He told ET Panache, "While I like all racquets games and play them well, I was Rajasthan state champion in lawn tennis and have been playing the 35+ and 40+ circuits in Mumbai regularly for the last 5 years."
Tennis has been a special game for the real estate boss. "It’s a great combination of anticipation, endurance and planning. The ball speed is always against the body mass and it needs a huge alignment of all your body parts including your heart to support playing good tennis," he explained.
Moorthy if he is lucky plays the game twice a week and it is a great source of relaxation for him. "The tennis ball takes away my mind and body and the racquet becomes the means to tackle it. Having said that, it takes away a lot to play a coordinated sport like lawn tennis. The opponent usually takes real stress," he said.
A member at the MCA-Club, Bandra the Props AMC Founder ends up playing with many clubs like Khar Gymkhana, The Club-Andheri, Practennis-Andheri, among others. "Mumbai has a close-knit circuit of Elite players who play competitive tennis from age 35-50 years every fortnight including rainy days. Very fewer fellows from real estate or tech at my level known to me in tennis. But there are a bunch of bankers, asset managers, entrepreneurs, businessmen who play the sport passionately," he added.
The best memory of the game for Moorthy has been a thrilling opportunity to rally with tennis star Leander Paes. "This is something, I will never forgot, while he was practising for a match in Jaipur. I got a chance to be a ball boy in the Davis Cup match between India – Chile in 1997 for all five matches. Imagine seeing Paes- (Mahesh) Bhupathi (world champions) in action at the closest distance. They qualified in the round of 16 that year," he ended with a huge grin.
Tennis has been a special game for the real estate boss. "It’s a great combination of anticipation, endurance and planning. The ball speed is always against the body mass and it needs a huge alignment of all your body parts including your heart to support playing good tennis," he explained.
Moorthy if he is lucky plays the game twice a week and it is a great source of relaxation for him. "The tennis ball takes away my mind and body and the racquet becomes the means to tackle it. Having said that, it takes away a lot to play a coordinated sport like lawn tennis. The opponent usually takes real stress," he said.
A member at the MCA-Club, Bandra the Props AMC Founder ends up playing with many clubs like Khar Gymkhana, The Club-Andheri, Practennis-Andheri, among others. "Mumbai has a close-knit circuit of Elite players who play competitive tennis from age 35-50 years every fortnight including rainy days. Very fewer fellows from real estate or tech at my level known to me in tennis. But there are a bunch of bankers, asset managers, entrepreneurs, businessmen who play the sport passionately," he added.
The best memory of the game for Moorthy has been a thrilling opportunity to rally with tennis star Leander Paes. "This is something, I will never forgot, while he was practising for a match in Jaipur. I got a chance to be a ball boy in the Davis Cup match between India – Chile in 1997 for all five matches. Imagine seeing Paes- (Mahesh) Bhupathi (world champions) in action at the closest distance. They qualified in the round of 16 that year," he ended with a huge grin.
A Family Of Aces
The Zverevs are perhaps the most consummate of tennis families. Alexander Sr was a tennis player who once defeated Vijay Amritraj. His wife Irina was a player too. Now both their sons, Alexander and his elder brother Mischa, are pros. Alexander Sr and Irina are Russians who played on the circuit in the 1980s. They married young — Irina was 17 — and ultimately moved to Hamburg. “Both kids sometimes used to say, ‘Last ball’, and I would have to play one hour more,” Irina said about the sweet ordeal of training her ever competitive cubs.
(In Pic from left: Alexander Sr, Alexander ‘Sascha’ Zverev, Irina Zverev)
