A romantic of the ferocious Rafael Nadal forehand, Rutvick Mehta loves his tennis but has been covering various other sport since 2012. He writes for HT.
Articles by Rutvick Mehta
The mother of all Slams!
Serena, Azarenka and Pironkova became the first trio of moms to reach the quarters of the same major
Updated on Sep 09, 2020 12:45 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Novak Djokovic ‘sad and empty’ after disqualification
Top seed Novak Djokovic pays the price for accidentally hitting a line judge after an angry swipe at the ball during his fourth-round match
Updated on Sep 08, 2020 08:56 AM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Got a lot to learn from Dominic Thiem: Sumit Nagal
In the last one year, India’s highest-ranked singles player has faced three of the biggest names in modern tennis and a common lesson for Nagal has been to put aside the urge of playing an “extreme” level of tennis against these extraordinary opponents.
Updated on Sep 05, 2020 08:06 AM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Sumit Nagal back on Arthur Ashe, this time he faces Dominic Thiem
Sumit Nagal played on one of the many outer courts on Tuesday, and is likely to be bumped up to either of the two main courts for his encounter against the Austrian Dominic Thiem.
Updated on Sep 03, 2020 06:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
‘Who owns chest bump?’ Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi on Bryan Bros
By their own admission, Paes and Bhupathi would’ve added more to their tally of eight and four Grand Slam doubles titles, respectively, had the over the six feet tall identical twins not stood in their way.
Updated on Sep 02, 2020 08:23 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Chess Olympiad gold will boost chess scene in India: Koneru Humpy
Koneru Humpy talks about extreme moments, the unusual experience of playing the sport online and the significance of India’s historic gold at the Olympiad.
Updated on Aug 31, 2020 10:49 PM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
US Open: Serena Williams chases Margaret on home court
Field depleted, stage set. Can Serena Williams break a 4-year jinx to equal Court’s coveted Grand Slam record?
Updated on Aug 31, 2020 07:53 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Rohan Bopanna, Sumit Nagal join Novak Djokovic-led players council
Bopanna, ranked 37th in doubles, and India’s highest-ranked singles player Nagal were both present in the meeting of around 60 players on court in the US Open’s bubble in New York on Saturday.
Updated on Aug 31, 2020 07:47 AM IST
Hindustan TImes, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Prajnesh leaves for New York hoping for entry at US Open
The country’s second-highest ranked singles player will fly to New York hoping to take part in the US Open, starting on Monday, despite not making the cut in the initial entry list announced earlier this month.
Updated on Aug 26, 2020 08:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Failure teaches you more than success: Jemimah Rodrigues
India’s top-order batswoman Jemimah Rodrigues talks about the pros and cons of the league clashing with the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL), her learning from a below-par 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup with the bat and carrying the burden of expectations at a young age.
Updated on Aug 19, 2020 07:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
‘Mixed feelings’ as Bopanna flies to USA to return to Tour
The doubles world No. 37 is the only Indian who will play the ATP 1000 Cincinnati Open, which marks the return of the men’s ATP Tour after a five-month break.
Updated on Aug 16, 2020 11:59 PM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Monsoon weddings in extra time
For some it was a welcome break, for others an avoidable speed breaker; for some it gave hope of stretching careers, for others it forced a re-evaluation. But there were also those who used the unscheduled break to get married.
Updated on Aug 14, 2020 08:03 AM IST
Mumbai/New Delhi | Rutvick Mehta & Nilankur Das
No safe route for India’s running season
India’s running calendar has taken a big hit with half of roughly 1400 distance races cancelled or deferred.
Updated on Aug 08, 2020 02:42 PM IST
New Delhi/Mumbai/Chandigarh | Avishek Roy, Rutvick Mehta & Saurabh Duggal
Pro tennis restart: It’s love-all ladies in Palermo, once a Covid-19 hotspot
As professional tennis takes its first step in the restart process after a four-month hiatus with the 31st WTA Palermo Ladies Open starting on Monday (the qualifiers begin Saturday), it will seek to inject some much-needed positivity with a smooth and safe conduct of the week-long event.
Updated on Jul 29, 2020 07:42 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Hit by losses, tennis players seek different paying field
In May, tennis’ governing bodies—International Tennis Federation (ITF), men’s ATP, women’s WTA and the four Grand Slams—joined hands to raise over $6 million to compensate lower-ranked players struggling due to the ‘no play, no income’ period after the tours were halted in March.
Updated on Jul 27, 2020 07:17 AM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Timely monetary help keeps struggling Mumbai hockey players afloat
Desperate for money, Devkar, who had just finished his B.Com course from Rizvi College, frantically applied for a couple of jobs in Nanded but to no avail. Options were fast running out, until help arrived from unexpected quarters.
Updated on Jul 13, 2020 06:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
After Adria, people are going to think about returning to the tour: Sania Mirza
Putting tennis in the back seat despite having a court at her home in Hyderabad, Mirza spoke to HT about the challenges in finding the motivation for another return journey and the threat to the tour restarting next month after Novak Djokovic’s Adria Tour fallout.
Updated on Jul 02, 2020 04:19 PM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
With cases rising in Mumbai, Karkera opts to brave it alone at SAI Bengaluru
The 24-year-old goalkeeper decided to stay back at the SAI campus after consultation with his parents, who thought it was simply not safe for their boy to return to one of the worst affected cities in the country in terms of Covid-19 cases.
Updated on Jun 28, 2020 08:06 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Sharath, Sathiyan join forces to raise funds for TT community dealing with crisis
Chennai lads Sharath and Sathiyan, along with 2008 Beijing Olympian Neha Aggarwal from Delhi, have joined forces to raise R10 lakh to financially support 100 people whose daily bread solely depends on table tennis.
Updated on Jun 27, 2020 11:24 PM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Indian players question US Open decision to axe qualifying, reduce doubles draw
Tales like Nagal’s, however, will not be possible this year at the Flushing Meadows. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) on Wednesday announced that the 2020 US Open will be held from August 31 in New York.
Updated on Jun 18, 2020 07:48 PM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
‘To sprint another 100m for the sake of record books is very relevant’: Leander Paes
PEERLESS: Living and breathing tennis from the age of 5, key on return will be fitness levels and recovery: Paes.
Updated on Jun 14, 2020 07:42 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Hockey player Walmiki returns to India after 4 months in Netherlands
On Thursday evening, the 28-year-old took off in a direct Amsterdam-Mumbai Air India flight operating under the special Vande Bharat Mission to fly back Indians stuck abroad during this pandemic.
Updated on Jun 14, 2020 12:04 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Delhi | Rutvick Mehta
Rohan Bopanna back on court after lengthy lockdown break
On Tuesday, when Bopanna stepped on court for a training session for the first time in almost three months, he felt like a child.
Updated on Jun 03, 2020 07:49 PM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Running, sleeping, TV, shadow boxing: 73 days in near isolation for teen boxer
Antil, who won bronze at the 2018 All India Inter-SAI boxing competition, is now undergoing a 14-day quarantine period at home. That seems like a breeze compared to the 73 days she spent at the SAI hostel with almost no company.
Updated on May 30, 2020 08:53 AM IST
Hindustgan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Table Tennis national camp proposal resisted by players
The TTFI sent an email to some players on Tuesday seeking their view on the possibility of a national camp next month for India’s top eight male and female players, along with their coaches, shortlisting a few cities for the same.
Updated on May 27, 2020 08:19 PM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Shivani Charak: Between a wall and a hard place
Shivani—India’s top-ranked woman sport climber, a sport that is slated for debut at the Tokyo Olympics—has not seen her mother for nearly two months, though they are only 20km apart from each other in Jammu.
Updated on May 24, 2020 08:36 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Racquet tap, imaginary crowd: A peek into tennis amid Covid-19
The UTR Pro Match Series was a glimpse into what could be the post-pandemic reality for tennis tournaments: there were no spectators, no coaches, no handshakes, no ball kids, no line judges; just one chair umpire wearing a face mask.
Updated on May 23, 2020 08:14 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
Divij Sharan returns to tennis court after 66 days
The 34-year-old thus becomes one of the first elite Indian sportspersons to resume proper training, impacted across sports by the global pandemic.
Updated on May 16, 2020 08:38 PM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta
With props for company, Sathiyan takes up unique ‘Yoga for Sports’
The TAC yoga and mental training centre has come up with Yoga for Sports programme, which Sathiyan has lapped up over the last couple of months.
Updated on May 14, 2020 02:25 PM IST
rutvick.mehta@htlive.com | Rutvick Mehta
Possible 2020 tennis season is entirely written off: Bopanna
The doubles specialist, India’s highest-ranked player at world No. 37, says he doesn’t really know what to train for. He believes it is possible that there is no further tennis on the professional tour this year, the truly global nature of the sport a disadvantage in these COVID-19 pandemic times.
Updated on May 09, 2020 07:30 PM IST
Mumbai | Rutvick Mehta