By G Rajaraman

ON WEDNESDAY, we were watching Divij Sharan and Tushar Liberhaan, two of India's best junior talent, battle it out in the men's pre-quarterfinals at the DSCL Open National Championship at the DLTA Complex. To the average tennis buff, it was a heart-warming clash with the lads bringing to the fore their stroke-making gifts. It did look like the teenagers were enjoying their on-court rivalry, neither asking for nor giving any quarter. A good former player, who has picked up the reputation of being a good coach, made a pertinent observation. ¡§These kids hit the ball well,they have got all the strokes¡K the only thing is that their stroke selection is not the best. They do not know when touse which stroke. They play a lot more instinctively. If they bring some science and thought in, they can be top qualityplayers when they step into the senior ranks, he said. Hopefully their coaches will see this and talk with the players sooner than later. Barely a day later, I had former National grasscourt champion Vasudeva Reddy's company as we kept track of Punam Reddy's women's quarterfinal contest with Tamil Nadu's Samrita Sekhar. He coaches the 16-year-old at the academy he runs with S Narendranath in Hyderabad and offered insight into his analytical skills. Tennis is like chess. At this level, since there is no real database about the strengths and weaknesses of players, you must have the ability to devise strategy for your opponent during the match, he said, alluding to Punam Reddy not trying too hard to vary the height at which Samrita Sekhar would have to play the ball. The time spent with the coaches set me thinking. There are a number of coaches at the DLTA Complex I recognise some and, owing to recent years of writing mainly on cricket, don¡¦t know most ¡V watching the proceedings at the DSCL Open National Championship. I wonder how many of them would share their observations with the young players. At the same time I also wonder how many youngsters have an open mind and seek knowledge and evolution from coaches who they not train with but meet every once in a while. Should coaches wait for players to walk up to them and ask for advice? Or, on the contrary, should they offer the youngsters an insight into their games? I believe it should work both ways. This is a dilemma that is neither new nor will have a ready solution, mainly because the convention is not the best. I have made the reference to my recent years spent as a cricket writer with a specific reason. I have known former cricketers hesitate to offer the younger cricketers advise for the fear of being rejected. This fear of rejection is prevalent in nearly all sport and it would wonderful if Indian tennis takes the initiative and gets the thinking heads together to iron out the kinks and make a difference to the young players.