PUNE: Arjun Kadhe believes the special pre-season camp for doubles players in Dubai last month has provided him with more “clarity” as he looks forward to making further gains in the new season.
Kadhe had shifted his focus from singles to doubles last season in which he played a full doubles schedule for the first time.
The doubles camp in Dubai, envisioned by Pune Metropolitan District Tennis Association with grand slam champion Rohan Bopanna as mentor, covered the top-200 ranked Indian players and Kadhe, having risen to 146, joined along with his Brazilian partner Fernando Ramboli.
Supported by software firm KPIT, the programme had former South African doubles specialist Jeff Coetzee conducting the camp.
"Dubai was really good because I was already looking to train, especially for doubles. And this helped because all the top eight-ten (doubles) players in the country were under one roof and training," Kadhe said.
"Obviously, Jeff (Coetzee) was amazing, which is what has been lacking -- the involvement of a world class coach, telling a group what to do, what to work on, and taking the drills, multiple hours on court. It's a different approach, there's a different clarity with his training.
"Now I have more clarity as to what to do and what I should focus on. Obviously, the volume has to come in and the corrections have to happen. But Dubai was very good, leading into how I should look in the next six months, or what I should improve on and what I should focus on.
"That clarity was very important."
Kadhe said that although he had a non-Indian partner, being part of the programme — titled ‘Doubles Dream of India’ — would only help his career.
"When I told Ramboli, this is what is going on, he jumped on board quickly. He was like, ‘I don't have a problem coming all the way from South America, I'm ready to pay’, because this kind of preseason camp doesn't happen anywhere in the world," the 28-year-old said.
"I don't think choosing partners would be any complication, they're not forcing us to play with certain players. I think it'll help us schedule better instead of complicating it because now that we know that ‘we are going to have these four weeks the coaches are ready to travel’, then we plan according to that.
"I think it's going to help us a lot in scheduling as well."
Kadhe said he looked forward to the new season with more purpose.
"I had a decent 2022, I would say I started the year when I was 250 odd (in world ranking) in doubles. And now I'm 150. So it was a good year. My initial goal is to break the top 100 this year in ’23, and hopefully go even further," he said.
"It's a process. And also, as Jeff and all the coaches say, ranking is a by-product. So I want to focus on what I can improve — doubles specific, be just a bit more efficient and not just blindly keep playing and running behind the rankings."
