With BOSM looming large, the BOSM English Press sat down with the Girls’ Lawn Tennis captain, Akankshya Mishra to talk about the team, the format of the game and their prospects this year. Each match during BOSM would follow a best of three tie format, with two singles and a doubles match being played. Each tie is a best of three sets.  The present team consists of six players, with two players each from the first , second, and third year. For BOSM, they would be splitting up into two separate teams, BITS A and BITS B, comprising of 3 players each. Akankshya is still working on the team combinations, and would decide the final composition in the next couple of days.

Talking about the team’s training regimen, Akankshya said that they have both morning and evening sessions at Gym-G. A typical day would entail an hour or two of drills in the morning, followed by 2-3 hours of matches in the evening. The captain believes that an occasional day of rest is a part of the team’s training to break off the monotony.

Even though the girls’ team failed to reach the finals last year, Akankshya is very optimistic about the team’s prospects this year and expects to finish on the podium. Apart from BOSM, the team also goes for an outstation tournament in the even semesters. They went to IIT Roorkee last year, where they won a Bronze medal and to IIT Delhi the year before that.  A training camp is organised each year where they try to motivate people to pick up the sport, and also try and encourage students who had quit the sport to start practicing again.

When asked to comment on the recruitments this year, Akankshya lamented that many first years were reluctant to come forward and try for the team. “A lot of girls don’t come because they are afraid that they are not good enough after playing for five years and then not playing for two years”, says the captain.

Akankshya has been playing tennis since the fifth grade. What started off as a hobby soon turned into something serious as she started taking part in tournaments in college after having made the team. Speaking about her experience as captain, she said that juggling academics with her captaincy duties has been stressful. However, she sees it as an incredibly fulfilling task. “You look at a team differently when you are a  captain. You don’t look at your own game so much as you look at everybody else’s”, says the captain.

Not having a coach this year has also made Akankshya take on more of a training role. She believes that this has made her look at the game from a different perspective. Apart from helping herself, she now also takes out time to help her teammates.

Akankshya also commended the CoSSAc, saying that they have been very smooth to work with.

As a parting comment, she said that she hoped to see more girls coming forth for lawn tennis next year.