Jasmine Paolini of Italy plays a forehand against Donna Vekic of Croatia in the Ladies’ Singles semi-Final match during day eleven of The Championships Wimbledon 2024 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
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Adbhut forehand and Karari serve (ace) add a new flavour to this Wimbledon season. As tennis fans across the globe wait with bated breath for the live telecast of the Women’s and Men’s final championship matches on July 13 and 14, Indians are set to savour the action on Centre court in Hindi too.
Hindi flavour
Zeeshan Ali
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Special arrangement
Wimbledon 2024 made a new beginning on July 1 as broadcaster Star Sports Network tied up with All India English Club to introduce Hindi commentary on its Star Sports 1 Hindi channel. The live broadcast by Zeeshan Ali, a former Davis Cup player and the current national and Davis Cup coach, sports commentator Raman Bhanot, and host Suren Sundaram (Star Sports Network) brought the match alive for Hindi-speaking tennis fans. While a thirty-minute show by Raman and Suren continues to air the highlights on the channel daily at 10am, live commentary for the matches was initially slated only for two days (July 1 and 2). Buoyed by the response, the Network now plans to bring the trio back for the finale.
Enjoyable experience
Commentating in Hindi was a different but enjoyable experience, says Zeeshan, who had commentated earlier in English for Star Sports on Wimbledon in 2014 and 2015. Having a chat with the production team about what was needed for the broadcast made it easier too.
The single matches between India’s Sumit Nagal and Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic, Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) versus Dusam Lajovic (Serbia) and Carlos Alcaraz versus Mark Lajal were among the matches covered by the team. Although the technical terminology does not change, the commentary in colloquial Hindi makes is easy to understand. “Like in cricket, tennis too has words specific to the game that cannot be changed irrespective of the language we speak,” says Zeeshan, giving examples of terms such as forehand, backhand, overhead, volley and serve.
Building content
Raman Bhanot
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Special arrangement
Live broadcasting has its share of challenges in terms of unforeseen moments. Commentators have to be ready with a backstory to explain such incidents. Raman recently spoke about the light moment shared between Carlos Alcaraz and Frances Tiafoe on the grass court in the highlights show. “People who follow tennis and listen to English commentary know the backstory behind certain events. But Hindi commentators need to build in the content for Hindi viewers and explain the story behind their funny exchange.”
Being brief, concise, and to the point are the major points of a tennis commentary. From letting the match play on, to not talking while the rally is in progress, a commentator should be quick and speak succinctly the moment a point is over, as the chair umpire might announce the score or faults.
Zeeshan says, “Hindi commentary is a welcome move that helps the game; it takes the sport to more people, cutting across language barriers.”
Finally, as you watch your favourite tennis star make his opponent run end to end on the baseline and follow it up with a drop shot, you might hear Raman say, ‘Pura court napwaya diya’ !
